Lost Future
by Mriya
Summary: Ichigo's family on his mother's side is coming to visit. I can't tell you any more. It might give it all away. Please read it though.
1. Aggravations

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. I don't own Bleach. I don't own Bleach...Oh crap! I've become a broken record! Well, that should last for at least the next three chapters. It won't? Well....chicken!

I started a new story. It revolves around Ichigo, so it should be okay...I think...Well, ignore my rambling and please read the story.

Ichigo started walking home. He had stayed a little late after school to get his make up work. He had been absent so much and the teachers weren't taking it easy on him at all. He'd go into his class and the interrogation would begin. Right in front of the whole class. Every time, his excuse had been that 'he'd been sick'. The principle said that if he was absent one more time that semester, they'd call the police and a doctor. He didn't like the idea, but what could he tell them? That he'd been in another world working for shinigamis to kill some evil monsters? Would they believe it? Not likely. They'd probably put him in a padded cell. They shouldn't be complaining though. Even though he was gone so much, he still had an A in all his classes.

School ended at four o'clock and it was now seven o'clock and he wasn't even close to being home. Ichigo sighed and stopped at a convenience store and picked up a few bottled coffee drinks. With all the homework he had, he'd need the extra caffeine to stay awake long enough to finish even a small portion of it.

He continued walking for about ten more minutes and was finally just a few steps away from his front door. Before he turned the knob, he looked at his watch and saw that it had only been half an hour. He grinned. For the first time, he was actually home before his ridiculous curfew. That meant no 'surprise' attack from his dad. Wrong.

Feeling unusually happy, Ichigo opened the door and walked inside. He started walking towards the stairs, but heard running footsteps coming toward him. He turned around and saw his dad running unusually fast toward him with a creepily determined look on his face.

"You'refinallyhomeontime, Ichigooooo!" he shouted as jumped in the air sticking a foot out to kick his son.

Ichigo dodged the kick and shouted, "What the hell? I thought I'd get a break from this crap if I was home on time!"

Ishin jumped up and tutted, "That's what happens when you make assumptions, my son."

Ichigo sighed and said, "Whatever. I'm going to my room. Send _Karin _or _Yuzu _to get me when dinners done." With that, he started up the stairs before his dad could get a word in otherwise.

Once he was in his room, he dropped his bookbag and collapsed on his bed. He was so exhausted and didn't want to move at all. After a few minutes, he realized that he'd better get started on his homework and got up and walked over to his desk. He sat down and pulled out paper, a pencil, and his history book. He got to work and eventually finished his first assignment. Just as he was about to get out another book, he heard his dad shout "Yes!" from downstairs. That was obviously something that Ichigo never liked, seeing as he started hitting his head on his desk over and over again.

He got up and walked downstairs to see a very happy Ishin jumping around the room. He caught sight of his son and said, "I've got great news!"

Ichigo shook his head in shame at having this lunatic as a father and said, "I kinda figured that out. Now what the hell is so great that you have to be ten times more annoying than usual?"

Ishin snapped to attention and announced, "I will tell and the family are coming down to visit. There's even talk about moving here!"

Even though Ichigo's dad looked happy, Ichigo himself wasn't happy at all. Kaze is his mom's older brother. The family consisted of Kaze, Nami, Yuko, Hiroshi, Hikari, Takuto, and Aya. Kaze was obviously his uncle, Nami was his aunt, Yuko was twenty seven, Hiroshi was Yuko's husband and was twenty eight, Hikari was twenty one, Takuto was eighteen, and little aya was two. Out of all the people in that part of his family, Takuto was the only one he didn't like. He always beat him up, teased him, locked him in rooms, and was overall a jerk.

Ichigo looked bored. "Great. I'll be upstairs," he said as he started up the stairs again.

Ishin looked thoughtful for a moment and said, "Oh, when is Rukia going to be back from the school trip?" Oh, so _now _he was sane.

Ichigo looked back at him and said, "In a few days. Why?"

"I want them to meet her! They've all been waiting for you to get a girlfriend," he said cheerfully.

"She is not my girlfriend, dammit!" he shouted and ran back up to his room.

As soon as Ichigo was in his room, he heard his dad shout, "Dinner is ready!" and he sweatdropped. He could've told him that when he was down there. He went back downstairs and into the kitchen and sat down. The food was already on the table.

Yuzu ran up to him and squealed, "Did you hear the news?" while trapping him in a tight hug. Even Karin looked happy.

Looking surprised, Ichigo said, "Uh...Yeah."

"Well?..." she said, waiting for his opinion on the event.

"It's...great..." he said, hating that he had to lie about something so simple.

"I know!" she and Karin squealed together. Ichigo was taken back. He hadn't heard Karin squeal since before their mom died six years before.

They sat down to dinner and talked about what they'd do, what they'd talk about, and where they'd go. Ichigo tried to look at least happy that the Takashis would be coming, but it didn't look entirely convincing. He wasn't really happy at all. There was no way in hell that he and Takuto would get along. Well, he'd just have to live with it for now and he'd think of another way to avoid them.

Karin noticed how quiet Ichigo was and asked, "What's up Ichigo?" That just made Ichigo smile.

"I'll tell you later, Karin."

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A/N: Yay! The first chapter is done. I had a hard thinking about the last name of Ichigo's cousins. Oh, and I can't remember if Karin knows if Rukia is a shinigami or not, so in this story, she doesn't. PLEASE REVIEW!!!


	2. Get Me Out of Here!

Disclaimer: I don't own bleach. I wish I did, but I don't. You people are driving me insane with this disclaimer!

I'm so bored. I hate when the clocks reset. It bugs the heck out of me. I'm trying so hard not to write the lyrics of the song I'm listening to right now. Well, here's the second chapter. Hope you enjoy it and most of all, I hope you review. Oh, and at the start of the story, I don't put the whole conversation because you guys already know the reason. This story takes place after Karin learns that Ichigo is a shinigami.

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After dinner, Ichigo and Karin went upstairs to sit in Ichigo's room. There, he told her why he didn't want them to come and Karin somehow brought herself to understand his reasoning. She didn't completely understand until he told her about the issues between him and Takuto. He and Takuto had been able to hide the evidence of their 'arguments' very well and nobody noticed that Ichigo had a different bruise every hour of the day they visited. He didn't want to scare Karin, but he couldn't lie to her either. When he got to the part about hiding the fact that he and Rukia are shinigami, Karin couldn't hold her silence.

She looked at Ichigo with wide eyes and said, "Rukia's a shinigami too?"

Ichigo nodded and said, "Well, now that you know everything, I think you need to go to bed. They'll be here tomorrow and I don't think you'll want to be tired then."

Karin nodded and walked to the door, but before she left the room, she said, "Good night, Ichi-nii."

When she was gone, Ichigo went back to his desk to resume working on his endless pile of homework. He had more assignments than he could count and only one of them was out of the way. He'd have to work extra hard from now on. They had a new assignment every day and he had to do those and the work that he missed. After an hour, he heard a knock on his door. He sighed. Within that hour, he'd only completed two more assignments and was just starting the fourth assignment of the night.

He got up with an aggravated groan and opened his door. Yuzu was standing on the other side with a confused look on her face. He looked at her and asked, "Yuzu? What's wrong?" then added, "Shouldn't you be asleep?"

She ignored his questions and said, "I want to know what you and Karin were talking about."

Ichigo knew he couldn't tell her. She'd flip out and start crying. Just because she was mature beyond her years doesn't mean that she isn't a kid. "She just wanted to know why I'm so tired," Ichigo told her.

Yuzu narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "That took an entire hour?"

Ichigo shrugged. "She wanted to see the assignments I have to make up."

She obviously didn't believe his excuse, but she took the hint. She looked over to his desk and sure enough saw the pile of books. "Okay. Good night, Ichi-nii." With that, she walked out into the hallway and went to hers and Karin's room.

Ichigo looked at the clock on his desk. It was after ten and he needed to get to sleep. He had to deal with school and Takuto the next day. He changed into his pajamas, sweat pants and a t-shirt that was missing the sleeves, and went over to his desk to turn his phone off. Right as he picked the phone up in his hands, he received a text message. He opened it up and saw that it was from Rukia.

_**Hey. I'll be back tomorrow. I won't go back to the house immediately, so I'll see you at school. Good night.**_

He shook his head. Now he had to add Rukia to the equation on how to deal with his life. He thought he'd just have to deal with school, and his insane family. Now he had to deal with Rukia too. For some reason, that didn't seem so bad once he thought about it. He'd have some sane company who'd be able to relate to his problems. But there was another reason that he just couldn't understand. He didn't try to understand it either. It was late and he wanted to get some sleep. He slowly walked over to his bed and lay down, thinking about absolutely nothing. After a few minutes, he fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.

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When Ichigo woke up, he felt sick to his stomache. There was so much he'd have to explain to the Takashis. He'd have to face Takuto and would probably get killed. Takuto had always had a lot of muscle and had always been a great deal taller than Ichigo. Well, at least they wouldn't be visiting until long after he got home from school.

After a minute, Ichigo decided that it was time to get ready. He looked at the clock and realized that he'd slept in longer than he thought. He still had plenty of time to get to school, but he'd have to skip breakfast. Putting his uniform on, he realized with a weird feeling of happiness. He didn't know where it came from, but right now, he was too late to care. Ichigo grabbed his bag, stuffed with books and ran downstairs.

When he got downstairs, Ichigo noticed that nobody was downstairs. Yuzu and Karin left for school only a few minutes previous, so he didn't expect them to be downstairs in the first place, but he at least thought his dad would be downstairs to see them off as was his usual routine.

Finding his dad hadn't even left his room, Ichigo shrugged it off and walked to kitchen to see that nothing had been used at all. That was odd. Didn't Karin and Yuzu at least have breakfast? He looked at his watch and he was definitely going to be late if he didn't move right then. He ran out the door and nearly ran over someone in the process of his sad attempt to leave his own house. He looked up and saw that he had nearly ran over his uncle Kaze.

He stumbled back in embarrassment and saw that his uncle wasn't mad at him for nearly killing him at all. That didn't surprise Ichigo. His uncle was always calm and never got mad. Takuto had tried many times as a kid and they all failed. Kaze and Masaki had always been the most calm people Ichigo had ever heard of.

Rubbing the back of his head, Ichigo said, "Itai!..Uh...sorry."

Kaze just laughed and said, "Where's the fire, Ichigo?"

Ichigo looked up at his always-happy uncle and cocked his head to the side? "Uh...school."

Again, Kaze laughed and said, "You're not going to school today. You're all going to spend the day with us."

Ichigo just looked at them for a moment. He was going to be in enough trouble later, so he'd might as well use the one excuse he had ready. "I've got too many assignments to make up. See you later," then he high-tailed it as far past Kaze as he could go before he was grabbed by the collar.

"What do you mean?" Kaze asked, sounding genuinely concerned. "Have you been sick?"

"..."

"Why didn't you tell Ishin, sweety?" This time it was Nami, who was walking toward them at a steady pace.

Ichigo was beginnig to feel trapt and when he felt trapt, his reiatsu went crazy. "I have a job now," he stated as though it were the simplest thing in the world. He hoped they wouldn't go too crazy with questions. Rukia had a report ready for him and he couldn't be late.

They heard another car pull up to the clinic. Ichigo turned toward the sound to see his oldest cousin, Yuko, and her husband, Hiroshi, step out of the car. They seemed happy enough. Hiroshi, like always, seemed to have a different motive hidden behind his dark brown eyes. But they all knew they could trust him. Unfortunately for Ichigo, he was a cop. Oh, joy.

"Ah, you guys are finally here," Kaze smiled. He always seemed to be in a good mood, even when he should be angry.

"Of coarse! Why would we be late?" Yuko laughed. She had long, golden hair, just like Masaki's. She looked a lot like Masaki as well. It made him sad to look at her.

They were all so happy. He had never seen them truly depressed before. Even when Masaki died. They had been said then, but they tried to shrug it off and said, "Everyone has to die sometime. Besides, she's gone to a happy place." He didn't want to ruin their happy little life by barging in with the world of shinigamis following close behind.

"Ichigo? Ichigo!" He heard someone shout his name and immediately snapped out of his thoughts. He looked up to see all of them leaning over him, all looking concerned.

"What?" he snapped.

Nami stepped forward and put her hand to his forehead to check if he had a fever. "You spaced out. Is there something wrong?"

Ichigo hestitated for a moment, then mumbled, "No. Not right now at least."

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A/N: Hey, I finally finished the second chapter. This took a while. I love writing right now and you should be able to tell how bored I am. Well, see you next chapter.


	3. Old Enemies

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. The only part of this story I own is the story and the Takashi family.

I know, I havn't been sarcastic lately. I don't know why. I've been really calm. I've had so much going on. I'll update as soon as possible. I'm using a public computer to upload the stories, and that's why it's been so slow. I've got a lot of stories up now. Most of them are incomplete. Yep. I don't know how to finish one thing before starting another. Hope you like this chapter.

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Everyone was looking at Ichigo expectantly. Ichigo noticed that two people were missing and asked, "Where's Karin and Yuzu?" They weren't there and Kaze said they'd all be spending the day together. That made no sense at all.

Nami smiled and said, "Oh! Takuto took them to school to get their assignments. He went to get yours too."

That scared Ichigo. How long were they planning to keep him out of school. He needed to talk to Rukia. Speaking of the midget, right after Nami finished her sentence, Ichigo's phone vibrated. He took it out and looked at the caller ID. It was Rukia. He flipped it open and said, "Hello?"

"Where the hell are you, Ichigo?" Rukia asked. She didn't sound happy.

Ichigo hesitated for a moment and said, "Uh...some family showed up a little early. They're having me skip school today."

He heard her confusion when she asked, "I thought they weren't coming until later."

"I didn't know either. They just kinda showed up." At least he wasn't lying. She always managed to find out and made him pay for it.

"But I've got to give you some stuff from Yamamoto!" she screamed. He flinched and saw two sly smiles spread across his aunt and uncle's faces. That made him blush slightly.

He thought about it for a minute then realized he had no idea what she was talking about. "Wait. What stuff?" he said, turning from flustered to serious in a flash.

He could feel her smirk even though they were talking across a distance. "You'll have to wait to find out."

"Dammit, Rukia!" he snapped, but she had already hung up.

"You're girlfriend, Ichigo?" Yuko asked with a tone of voice he didn't like. He glared at her and said, "Hell no!" That just made everybody laugh.

Ichigo tried to walk away, but instead of Kaze grabbing his collar, it was Hiroshi. He was smiling and seemed to be having as much fun as everyone else. Ichigo started to feel panicky. Last time he had seen someone smile like that, they had almost killed him. Ichigo yanked out of Hiroshi's grip a little too frantically and stumbled back a few steps. He knew they could tell something wasn't right with him and immediately ran up to him to see what was wrong. Feeling suffocated, he held up his hand to tell them to stop where they were and said, "I'm fine. I just need to go for a walk." When they tried to follow him he said, "_Alone_." His phone vibrated again and he answered it, snapping, "Hello?"

"Ichigo?" a voice asked. It was Tatsuki.

Calming down a little, Ichigo replied, "Hey. What's up?"

"They're back, Ichigo," she said simply.

"Huh? What are you talking about, Tatsuki?" he asked, getting annoyed and worried all over again.

Seeming very aggravated, Tatsuki urged, "Think back to the one time you were terrified most. The time you honestly thought you were going to die. Dammit Ichigo, it's not that difficult!"

Ichigo knew what she was talking about when she told him to remember the one time he thought he'd lose his life. "Where are they?" he asked gravely.

"Why? Are you planning to go after them? If you do that, Ichigo, I will kill you myself!" she promised.

He closed his eyes and said, "I'm not stupid. Where are they?"

She hesitated for a moment, then said, "At the park. So _avoid the damn park, Ichigo!_"

He smiled lightly and said, "Sure. See ya." and hung up the phone.

Ichigo looked at his family and raised an eyebrow. "Why are you guys looking at me like that?"

Hiroshi looked at him with more intensity than he thought possible and said, "Why was your friend yelling, Ichigo?"

Ichigo hesitated for a moment and realized that he had no excuse. So he just said, "She's just loud. I'm going now. See you guys later."

He started walking off and realized with relief that they weren't following him. He continued walking until he reached the park. Even though he told Tatsuki that he'd avoid the park, he couldn't resist. He had to find out if they'd changed and if they'd threatened Tatsuki. He walked into the park with little to stop him and followed the winding path to the central fountain. There, he saw a dozen figures staring at the water and talking and smiling and laughing. Even though, it only lasted for a minute, he began to remember the last time that he saw them.

_~Flashback~_

_Ichigo was slammed into a tree by someone much bigger than him. He winced as he felt the back of his head. It was wet and sticky and he knew it was his blood. He looked at his attacker. He was huge. Maybe sixteen or seventeen. He and his friends had been torchering Ichigo since he was seven. He was nine now and had no mother to protect him and hold his hand._

"_What did you say to me, brat?" the young man growled. His name was Alex. He was feared by everyone at his school. He managed to pass off as a good student in school, but when he was outside of school, he was a menace. He didn't know any other emothion than hate and anger. No remorse, sadness, or joy._

"_I didn't do anything!" little Ichigo cried, trying to back away from him, but the tree was blocking his route of escape._

_Alex smiled at him, and being a little child, it looked genuine enough to Ichigo, and when Alex bent down to his level and held out his hand, Ichigo thought it was to help him up. When Ichigo grabbed his hand, Alex's smile turned evil and he jerked him up and started the beating all over again. Alex was careful to plant the blows to parts of Ichigo's body that could not be seen without some effort._

_After thirty minutes of this, Alex decided that he'd caused enough damage for one day and dropped Ichigo on the ground. He stood up and turned away._

_Ichigo looked at him crying for a minute until Alex looked back at him. But it was a blank look; no hatred or anger in it at all. Then he said, "I'll see you again, brat. I hope you'll be prepared." Then he walked out of the park and left Ichigo by himself, crying in the freezing rain. Blood spilling from his more serious wounds and his broken bones throbbing. If someone didn't come soon, Ichigo believed he'd die. But when help would get there, they'd never suspect it was a beating. They'd say he fell down a hill. They'd never know what really happened._

_~End Flashback~_

He continued walking past them and went to the other side of the path. He didn't bother looking at them again. If he did, it might lead to more trouble. It didn't surprise him when they looked at him as he was walking to the other path that went through the other half of the park.

"Hey Alex. It's the orange haired kid," a guy with bleached blond hair said. His name was Kashi. Ichigo clenched his eyes shut and continued walking, still remembering their last encounter. The one only Tatsuki knew about.

Alex looked from the fountain over to Ichigo. His long, brown hair had grown out and his eyes, with were a strange shade of grey hadn't changed much. There was something different, but Ichigo didn't bother looking to find out what it was.

"Brat?" Alex called softly.

Ichigo didn't even stop to acknowledge that he knew that Alex had called out to him. He wouldn't respond to being called brat. And apparently Alex guessed that after a moment.

"Ichigo."

Now Ichigo stopped. He'd never even known that Alex knew his real name. "What," Ichigo answered in a toneless voice. He heard the entire group let out surprised gasps. He heard someone begin walking toward him and turned around, with a serious expression on his face. He saw Alex walking toward him. However, he didn't seem to have any malicious intent, but he could be mistaken. It had happened before.

"What..." Alex trailed off. For once, he had nothing to say.

"Surprised to see me?" Ichigo smirked. Alex's eyes widened. "Did you think I'd give up just because I was abused as a kid?"

"What happened to you?" Alex asked softly.

Ichigo chuckled and said, "Nothing much. I'm just going through stuff right now. Why? Expect me to be afraid of you?"

Alex took a step back. "I-I'm sorry..." he stammered. He looked honestly sorry. That's what had changed in his eyes. There was no anger or hatred.

"I believe you. I know why you hurt me so much back then too. You're parents were sick. You saw me having a happy childhood and wanted to show me that it couldn't go on like that forever. The last time I saw you, your parents had died. You knew my mom was dead, too. That's why you said what you did. You were telling me to be prepared for your apology." Ichigo explained.

Alex looked at the ground and said, "Now you know what it's like to lose someone. Now you know what I had to go through."

Ichigo's expression turned into his normal scowl as he said, "I've got to deal with others who have lost loved ones too. It's my job." Alex looked up at him in surprise at this and was obviously confused.

"You have a job? What do you do for these people?"

Ichigo smiled and said, "You'll find out when you die. I'll make sure I'm there to do my job." Then, he felt his badge vibrate.

Alex and his group noticed the sound and Alex asked, "What was that?" This time it was Ichigo's turn to look surprised. Only people with high levels of reiatsu could see or hear his badge.

"Uh...work," Ichigo said as he took out his badge, hiding as much of it as he could with his hand. The little screen on the front said **'Aizen'** and Ichigo grimaced. He didn't want to deal with him. Then right when he was about to get ready to fight, it changed and said **'Ichimaru'**.

"What the hell..." Ichigo wondered aloud, temporarily forgetting about Alex and his group.

"Ichigo!" he heard a voice call out. It wasn't the voice he expected. This one was female.

"Rukia?" he guessed and turned around to see a short girl with black hair coming toward him.

When she reached him she looked at Alex and got in a defensive stance and said, "Tatsuki told me you'd do something stupid."

"What the hell is she talking about, Brat?" Alex asked, genuinely confused.

Ichigo looked back at him for a moment and said, "Nothing. Just ignore her," then added, "I wish I could," under his breath. Thankfully, she didn't hear that part.

She shook her head and said, "There's some big guy with Yuzu and Karin! He's huge! Not as tall as you, but still!" She was obviously talking about Takuto.

He walked over and stood about half a foot away from her. He looked down at her and saw that she had to look straight up to see him. He laughed, "Everyone's a giant compared to you."

"I'm serious! I've never seen him before!" she snapped.

Ichigo sighed and said, "That's just my pain-in-the-ass of a cousin, Takuto. He's getting our assignments. I'm not allowed to go to school today."

She looked at him skeptically and said, "That's stupid."

Raising an eyebrow, Ichigo said, "You think I don't know this?"

He turned back to Alex and said, "Well, I guess this means I have to go. See ya." When Alex said his good-bye, Ichigo and Rukia turned and walked to the park's exit. There, they came face to face with the last people Ichigo wanted to see.

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A/N: Ha! Dont' know who it is, do you? Well, if you do...I don't know. My hands are frozen though. This was a very long chapter...Well, I hope that satisfies you for a while.


	4. You'll Never Take Me Alive!

Disclaimer: I don't own it. Even if I did...well...I don't so leave me alone!

News Flash For This Story!: I am bringing Kaien and Miyako back! They'll be here soon! I love them. That's why they're in so many of my stories. I'm making this chapter extra long. You'll see why. *evilsmirk***. **Oh, and you'll find that this is also a Ichigo/Rukia story; my very first.

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When Ichigo and Rukia reached the park entrance, they saw Ichigo's family looking at them. He didn't like their expressions at all. They were looking at him with pity. But now, there was a new addition to the crowd. Standing in the very front was Takuto. Ichigo glared at him, which the family didn't like at all.

"What's with that look?" Kaze asked. He wasn't exactly happy.

"Nothing. I've got to go," Ichigo replied simply.

He started walking past them, but Hiroshi grabbed his arm. Ichigo tried to yank it out of his grasp, but Hiroshi had a firm grip and had no intention of letting him go.

"Let go!" Ichigo snapped. He didn't have time for this. Aizen and/or Ichimaru was somewhere nearby and he had to get to them before they caused some real damage.

"No," Hiroshi growled. "You aren't going anywhere today. You're staying with us."

Rukia saw the situation and said, "I can take care of it, Ichigo. Stay with your family today."

"No. Don't you remember last time they showed up?"

"..."

Nami placed a hand on Ichigo's shoulder and said, "Whatever it is, your friend can take care of it."

"But it's my job.." Ichigo mumbled, too low for anyone to hear. Then his badge vibrated again and he finally yanked his arm out of Hiroshi's grasp. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the screen. It said _**'50 Menos: Karakura park. Arrival Time: 5 minutes'**_. He showed it to Rukia and asked, "Can you handle this by yourself. She looked at the screen and her eyes widened in surprise. She shook her head no.

He turned to see his family looking at his badge curiously. "Is that part of you job, Ichigo?" Yuko asked. This time he wasn't so surprised that they could see his badge. They were related after all.

"Yeah. Now I _really_ have to go."

He and Rukia took off running into the park. Once they were out of everyone's sight, Ichigo swallowed Kon, which he had taken out of the stuffed lion the day before. His soul body immediately emerged out of his living body and Rukia swallowed her soul candy as well. Ichigo and Rukia continued running in the direction of the rip in the sky while their bodies ran to hide somewhere. Kon may be a pain in the ass, but he knew when to stay out of the way.

"Ichigo! What about those guys in the park from earlier?" she asked. "What do we do about them?"

"I don't know. We'll just ignore them I guess," Ichigo suggested. He really had no idea of what to do about Alex and his group. Hopefully they were gone.

After about ten minutes of running, they reached the spot where the Menos were supposed to arrive. They unsheathed their zanpakutous and got in their defensive stance. Then, the Menos began to fill the park. Ichigo and Rukia attacked. Ichigo used Getsuka Tenshou on five of them, and Rukia froze three

That just left fourty two. Great.

"Rukia! I don't think we can handle all of them! Not without me using bankai!" Ichigo yelled while destroying two more Menos.

Rukia was fending off one of them and shouted back, "Then what the hell should we do?"

"I was hoping you had an idea!"

They continued fighting and after fifteen minutes they still had twenty five to get rid of. Then, without any warning, another hole opened up in the sky and the Menos began going back to Hueco Mundo.

"What the hell?" Ichigo muttered. Why had they just left?

"I'm not sure..." Rukia started. She seemed just as confused as Ichigo. They looked around and saw nothing that would have made them all disappear like that. They decided to let it go and sheathed their zanpakutous. Just when Ichigo was about to call Kon to tell him to get over there, Rukia remembered that she had to give Ichigo his report from Yamamoto.

"Ichigo..." Rukia hesitated.

"Yeah?" Ichigo turned to her and hung up his phone. He had just called his and Rukia's bodies and they were on their way.

"Uh...I've got your orders from Yamamoto..." she started. Ichigo could tell that this wasn't going to be good.

"Well? What are they?" he asked, growing impatient.

Rukia looked at her surroundings. Finally, she decided to just onto a high branch of a nearby tree and said, "He's making you go to Shinigami Academy." She ducked for cover.

"What?!" he screamed. Rukia was sure that everyone in the city, including those without reiatsu, had heard him.

"Don't go off on me!" she snapped. "It's Yamamoto's orders, not mine. Oh, and you'll have to be disguised. Which means..."

Ichigo knew what she meant and said, "Hell no! I'm not doing that! No!"

"Sorry, Ichigo," Rukia said. She wasn't kidding either. It would make him look like the one man she wished she could forget. Now that she thought about it, that could create some complications as well. But she couldn't do anything about it now. It was official and on paper.

She saw their bodies coming their way and she jumped out of the tree. She had to admit that they were sure taking their time, but decided to ignore it. She and Ichigo got back into their bodies and Rukia began to walk out of the park. Ichigo stayed where he was.

Rukia sighed and said, "Come on, Ichigo."

"No way!"

"You're going against direct orders from Yamamoto!"

"Let them kill me then!"

She turned around and gave him the sad look, which she learned that he could not resist. "Come on, Ichigo." She didn't have to change her tone at all. The look did what it was supposed to do.

He groaned. "Alright." He walked slowly, but Rukia didn't mind. At least she got him moving.

"It won't be that way forever, Ichigo," she said to comfort him, even if it was only a little.

"Right. Now can you give me the details?" he didn't really care about the details. He was going to school. What else did he need to know? He just wanted to get his mind off what Yamamoto was forcing him to do.

"No one will know who you really are. Not even the teachers. You're going there to learn everything a shinigami is supposed to know. You're the first person to ever become a full blown shinigami. Even Kenpachi went to Shinigami Academy. He just didn't learn kidou. But Yamamoto wants to make sure you'll be prepared for anything. But you've still got to do your real school work..." She paused. Ichigo immediately knew what she meant.

"I've got to do the work from here too?" he shouted. He couldn't believe it. He had twice as more school work now?

They continued walking and he and Rukia changed the subject, which to Rukia's discomfort, Ichigo chose. They were arguing about why Rukia was so short. After only five minutes of the conversation, Ichigo was running for his life, but laughing at the same time. After another half hour, they reached the grocery store. Ichigo did _not_ want to go in. Rukia's solution: she dragged him in.

They walked into the store and began looking around. Ichigo tried to go off on his own, but Rukia grabbed his arm and yanked him along with her. She searched the isles and eventually found the one she'd been looking for. She looked through the choices and decided on the one that would make him look ordinary. She found the one Yamamoto had told her to buy and grabbed it, taking it, and Ichigo, to the check-out center of the store.

The clerk looked at the item and then at Ichigo and asked, "Are you really going to do this, Ichigo?" The clerk had known Ichigo pretty much since he was born and knew how Ichigo was about this particular subject.

"Not by choice," Ichigo mumbled. The clerk saw that Ichigo definitely wasn't happy about having to do something so drastic. Shrugging it off, he scanned the item and Rukia payed for it with money that Yamamoto had probably given her just for the occasion. He bagged it and handed it to Rukia. She thanked him and she and Ichigo left.

Rukia looked up at Ichigo and sighed. "Calm down, Ichigo. You won't be like this forever."

"But I'm still doing it!" he snapped. He was pouting, which Rukia thought was pretty cute considering his age. She realized what she was thinking and quickly pushed the thought from her mind. Unfortunately, Ichigo caught sight of the blush that had somehow crept onto her face.

"Are you okay?" Ichigo asked. He stopped walking and looked down at the small shinigami. She, however, didn't look up to meet his piercing gaze. She knew he'd notice something else.

"I'm fine. We need to get going," she said, walking off in the direction of the clinic. It was maybe mid-afternoon. Ichigo let the matter go and went back to thinking up a way to get himself out of the current situation. Before long, they were at the clinic and Ichigo was out of time and to go through with it. He really hated his life.

They walked in and dodged Isshin's kick and walked right past him. That was his cue to run to Masaki's memorial poster and burst into tears. Then Ichigo heard Karin yell, "Shut up, old man!" and Isshin started crying louder. He sighed and he and Rukia went up to the bathroom. She took out the item and placed it on the counter. Ichigo glared at it.

"Do we really have to dye my hair _black_?" he asked. It was too...average. He fought to keep his hair the color it was for almost his whole life and now he had to change it. It was unfair!

Rukia crossed her arms across her chest and sighed, "I wouldn't have chosen this color either. Now shut up so I can follow the instructions."

She went to work on his hair and he just...well...sat there. He couldn't really do anything but breathe. Then, his curiosity got the better of him and he finally asked, "When am I leaving?"

"Tonight, after dinner."

"What?!" he yelled. They could've given him at least a _little_ more notice than only a few hours. It was four o'clock. Before she could start what the instructions told her to do, he asked desperately, "Can't we just dye my soul's hair?"

"No. You're going to the Seireitei a different way than last time. You're physical body will disappear until you come back. So it's simpler just to dye your physical body's hair," she answered as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

"Then can't we do this after dinner?" This was the last thing he could think of to buy himself some time. Thankfully, it worked.

"Yeah...I guess it _would _be a bit odd for you to have orange hair before dinner and black hair during dinner..." she mused. She had to give him credit. He could think of some pretty clever things when he was desperate.

Ichigo smiled and they went downstairs for dinner. Yuzu was just setting the table and Isshin was nowhere to be found, which meant it was quiet. Just how Ichigo liked it.

"DAD!!" Karin yelled. "DINNER!"

He was in the kitchen in less than a millisecond. He was complimenting the food that Yuzu had made like he did every night when Rukia nudged Ichigo's arm and nodded toward his father. He sighed. She wanted him to tell them that he would be leaving tonight. He didn't want to. The interrogation would be aggravating and he might lose his temper and crush his sisters beneath his reiatsu.

"Uh, Dad?" Ichigo started to gain Isshin's attention. It worked. It was rare that Ichigo talked to his father like this and Isshin sensed that something was coming and turned serious.

"What is it, Ichigo?" he asked. He didn't like the tension that was spreading quickly through the room.

"I'm, uh...going to a special school. And...I'm leaving tonight," Ichigo said, his eyes fixed in a downward direction. Looking Isshin in the eye was not an option this time.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" his dad asked. He sounded angry, which surprised Ichigo. Isshin was usually a laid back guy who just let the world fly by without a care. And now he was angry? Was he in some parallel universe?

"I just found out," Ichigo defended. He was still taken back by Isshin's tone when he spoke to him.

"Well...I guess there's no going against it. Just come back and visit. You understand me?" he asked. Ichigo nodded. He was surprised. His dad normally would have been happy that he had the opportunity to go to another school and learn new things. They finished dinner in silence and Rukia and Ichigo went back upstairs. Instead of going to the bathroom, she told Ichigo to pack a lot of supplies like paper. He'd be able to get more in the Soul Society, but for now, he'd need it. He had the work from the Shinigami Academy and his normal school work, which Rukia brought home the whole year's for him.

He packed normal things, like clothes, books, school work, and other important things he would need. Then, he began packing the things that he _wanted_ to bring with him. He packed some books for reading, which he had plenty of; his badge, which he didn't really need, he was just used to carrying it around; and finally, pictures of his entire family. But the one that he looked at the most was a lone picture of his mother. They had been in the park that day, and so the background was lush and green and Masaki seemed as happy as she had always been. No clue that only a few months later, she would die.

Bye the time he was done packing, it was six o'clock. They went into the bathroom and began to dye his hair. He honestly wished it was any color other than black. He wouldn't have minded pink! It took fourty five minutes, which naturally seemed like forever to Ichigo. They washed the crap out of his hair and he was done and it was time to leave. He'd stay with Ukitake for the night and go to school the next morning. He looked at himself in the mirror and noticed that he looked almost identical to Ganju's brother, Kaien. He'd seen a picture of them all standing under a sign that said, "Good-Bye, Onii-san!". He'd had no idea that they had another sibling and wondered for weeks if he was as strange as the rest of them.

They walked over to Urahara's shop and was guided down into the 'basement'. The blue sky and rough terrain was the same as it always had been, besides some craters that they had made during Ichigo's training.

"Well! Took you two long enough!" Urahara said, waving his fan around as he walked over to a new looking portal. This one didn't look nearly as stable as the last one and was most likely illegal as well. Ichigo began to feel sick again.

"We had to wait until after dinner to dye Ichigo's hair. It'd be too suspicious if his family saw him like this," Rukia explained. Urahara nodded and hit the metal edges of the oval portal. It immediateley emitted a purple light and Ichigo wondered if he'd make it out alive. Then, a hell butterfly flew out and landed on his shoulder.

"Ah!" Urahara yelled, making them all jump. "It seems that Ukitake sent his butterfly for you so that you wouldn't have to deal with the stupid portal! Well, see you later!" and he pushed Ichigo through the portal.

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A/N: Wow. That was a really long chapter. I had to end it. It's almost 3,000 words and five and a half pages. So naturally, I'm sore from typing this. I'm getting evil thoughts right now, so I'll get back to you guys in the next chapter. Please review on this now ridiculously long story!


	5. Close Encounters

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. I only own the evil thoughts in my mind that drove me to write this story.

I'm amazed I made it this far into the story. Well, to get to the point, this is probably going to be a long chapter like the last one. And I'm guessing that you guys like it when I write long chapters. Enjoy the chapter. Oh yeah. These are how to determine the text during the dialogue.

"normal talking"

_'thinking'_

"**hollow talking"**

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After Urahara pushed Ichigo through the portal, he found himself in the same pathway that he had become familiar with. Thankfully, he didn't have a problem with the 'cleaners' like last time. Why they called them 'cleaners', he had no clue. He also didn't care. If he thought about it too much, his luck might run out and they would come after him.

He continued walking for the rest of the pathway until he saw a light. It made him think of 'the light at the end of the tunnel'. Most people he knew connected this with the crossing over of the dead. That made him laugh inside.

He walked out of the pathway, the butterfly still resting on his shoulder, and immediately saw Ukitake standing only a few feet away, smiling at him. Only, it wasn't the happy one he normally wore. This one was sad, and almost guilty. He decided that he didn't like that smile.

"Ichigo-kun! What took so long?" Ukitake asked, his smile going back to normal.

"We had to dye my hair _after_ dinner. It would've made everyone suspicious," Ichigo said. He was happy that Ukitake's smile went back to normal, but he still seemed...different than usual.

"Ah, I see," he pondered. "Well, we'd better get going. Yamamoto and I are the only ones who know about you going to Shinigami Academy, so we can't let anyone else see you like this." Ichigo nodded and they walked in the direction of the thirteenth division's housing. When he was walking, he noticed an unfamiliar lightness on his back. He looked over his shoulder and didn't see the sword that was normally there. That scared him.

"Where the hell's Zangetsu?!" he shouted looking around frantically. He didn't know why he didn't notice that his zanpaktou was missing before. It was there before Urahara pushed him through the portal, so where'd it go? Could he have grabbed it as he pushed Ichigo? No. He'd felt it's weight on his back when he was in the tunnel. Wait! He _did_ notice it was gone when he was about half way through the tunnel. He had just been so focused on keeping an eye out for the cleaner thing to notice.

"Since you'll be entering Shinigami Academy, you zanpaktou disappeared. In order to get him back, you'll have to wait until they teach you to form you're zanpaktou with a blank one or you can do it by materializing it out of your reiatsu," Ukitake explained. He thought it was so funny that he was so scared over the fact that Zangetsu was gone.

"That's ridiculous!" Ichigo yelled.

"That's the rules, Ichigo-kun."

Ichigo sighed and continued to follow the captain to his division of the Seireitei. Ichigo didn't like how Zangetsu had just disappeared. It made him feel vulnerable. Especially since he was a former ryoka and was in the middle of the Seireitei. He tried to ignore it and concentrated on memorizing his way around the thirteenth division. It was a freakin' maze! He wondered how anyone could remember their way around here. Especially Renji.

They finally reached the housing area of the division and Ukitake showed him to the room that he'd be using for the night. He thanked the man and Ukitake left him alone. Ichigo pu his stuff down and lay down on the bed. He didn't even bother changing. He'd had a long day and had no energy left. After he fell asleep, he dreamed that he had to fend off every single shinigami without Zangetsu. He woke up gasping for air right before Byakuya killed him. Thankfully, he didn't have to go back to sleep. He looked at his watch saw that it was five thirty in the morning.

He walked out into the hallway and saw no one. He closed his door and walked through the hallway until he reached Ukitake's office. He knocked on the door to see if anyone was in there and heard Ukitake say, "Come in."

Ichigo walked in and Ukitake smiled at him. Wondering why Ukitake was up so early, he closed the door. "Good morning, Ichigo-kun!" he said. He was obviously in a very good mood. Ichigo wasn't.

"'Morning," Ichigo yawned. Ukitake smiled and held out was appeared to be a cup of coffee and motioned for him to sit down.

"What time do I have to be there?" Ichigo asked.

"About seven o'clock," he answered. Ichigo looked at the clock. It was only five fourty five. He still had an hour and fifteen minutes to get there.

"Uh...do I have to wear a uniform?" he asked. He was sure he did, but he hadn't been given one.

Ukitake seemed to remember now that Ichigo had said something and immediately grabbed a bag close to his desk and pulled out two articles of clothing. The pants were blue and the shirt was white with one blue stripe running down each sleeve. Other than the color, it looked a lot like his shinigami uniform. At least he wouldn't be too uncomfortable.

"And you will be going under a new name as well. It's 'Takashi Arashi'. Please don't forget it," he added. "If you do, we'll all be in a world of trouble."

"I won't," Ichigo promised. He could understand forgetting his first name, but he couldn't forget his last name. It was his mother's maiden name.

Ukitake smiled and said, "Now, go get dressed. It takes a while to get there." Ichigo nodded and left to change into his new uniform. Once it was on, he realized it felt exactly the same as his original uniform. He went back to Ukitake's office and noticed that he was ready to leave. He picked up his bag and noticed it was considerably heavier. He didn't have time to check it though.

"I won't be able to take you all the way there. It would look pretty suspicious if anyone saw me taking you to school. And we don't have to worry about anyone seeing you here either. Everyone else is in Yamamoto's office for a meeting. Once you get outside of the Seireitei, you'll be able to see the academy from where you're standing. It'll be the biggest building you see," Ukitake told him. Ichigo nodded again and they left the building.

Ichigo recognized the path they were taking from the night before. He was actually surprised that he remembered this. He had a good memory when it came to directions, but not this good. He remembered looking in the mirror that morning and seeing his black hair. He forgot about it and almost attacked the mirror. He hoped that he didn't do that at the school. That'd be pretty embarrassing.

When they got to the gates, Ukitake pointed at the building just to be sure that Ichigo knew where he was going. Then Ichigo left. Unfortunately, this wasn't the gate he'd tried entering when he came to save Rukia, so he had no idea about any of his surrounding. He just kept his eyes on Shinigami Academy and went through the streets, hoping that one of them led to the school. Then, he heard a high pitched scream coming from a nearby field. It most likely belonged to a young girl. He took of as fast as he could, without using shunpo, in that direction.

When he reached the field, he immediately saw a decent sized hollow and a little girl with long, light brown hair quivering on the ground. He ran toward them and the hollow noticed him and left the girl alone for the moment, but he couldn't risk the chance of him eating the young kid.

"Hey! Get out of here!" Ichigo yelled at it.

The hollow took a closer look at him and seemed to smile. It looked like a giant snake. **"Well look what we have here! A **_**very **_**tasty soul. So, do you want to be eaten first?"** It had a woman's voice.

"No, I want you to get out of here," Ichigo repeated. "Don't you listen?"

This seemed to make the hollow angry. It lunged at Ichigo and he easily dodged it. He reached behind his back to grap Zangetsu, but remembered that he didn't have him anymore. "Damn," he muttered under his breath. He decided to use the karate skills he obtained as a child. The hollow wasn't moving. Ichigo couldn't do anything until the damn thing moved. He spared a quick glance for the child. She looked terrified, but relieved at the same time that someone had come to help her.

The hollow attacked and Ichigo didn't dodge this time. He heard the little girl scream, "Watch out!", but ignored it. When the hollow got close enough, he pulled his fist back and punched it as hard as he could, which was _extremely_ hard. He kept his fist in place and rotated it to the side. The hollow's mask was cracked and it started to disentigrate as it screamed. When it was finally gone, Ichigo sighed and looked at the little girl behind him. She was beginning to relax and he walked over to her.

He knelt down to her level and asked in a gentle voice that he barely used, "Are you okay?"

She nodded and Ichigo smiled. "T-thank you..." she said. Ichigo laughed a little. She was so cute and couldn't have been older than seven years old. Nine years younger than he was.

"Where did that thing come from? Did it come out of a hole in the sky?" He asked her. If it came out of Hueco Mundo, then it was likely that Aizen sent it. He had been defeated in the war, but had escaped alive. They'd searched for him, but couldn't find a single trace of him. That made Ichigo angry. He'd worked so hard for nothing.

"Yeah, but I thought they could only go to the living world," she said. She was feeling safe and Ichigo wanted to keep it that way.

"No, they just don't like coming here because of all the shinigami," he explained. "I'm Takashi Arashi."

"I'm Kimiko Kanami," she said smiling. He liked her smile. He actually liked any child's smile. He looked at his watch and it was six thirty. He had to leave. There was still plenty of time to get to school, but he wanted to be early.

"I've got to go, Kanami. I'll see you around," he said and turned to go. But he was stopped by a little hand that grabbed his hand. He turned around to look at Kanami, who had stood up and had his hand in a life-or-death grip.

"Don't go," she pleaded. She looked close to tears.

Ichigo thought of a solution. "How about this. I'll have Saturday off. Why don't you meet me here at about noon then. Okay?" he suggested. She thought about it for a moment, then nodded in agreement to Ichigo's proposal. He smiled and she let go of his hand.

He started running toward the school. He didn't sprint. There was still time. When he got close, he started to walk again. Ichigo was feeling a bit nervous. No one had told him how that school worked or when he'd get his books and other supplies. When he reached the school he silently stood outside of the front gates. There was two people guarding the front gates. He guessed that he had to tell them his information. He walked up to them.

"Name?" one of them asked him. They looked like statues. He was obviously a shinigami, but Ichigo didn't recognize him.

"Takashi Arashi," Ichigo answered. They stepped aside and let him through. He looked at the school for a second then walked through the gates of Shinigami Academy.

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A/N: It's not as long as I thought it would be. But it's really late and I have to get some sleep. See you at the next chapter.


	6. Welcome

Disclaimer: I don't own anything...stop looking at me like that! I tell the truth...most of the time...

Yeah. The ending of the last chapter was pretty retarded, but I had to end it somewhere! I am so bored right now so this one might be long. Not sure. Every time I want a short chapter, they end up being long. It just depends, I guess. Bye, people.

_**Loud School Speaker Thing**_

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Ichigo looked around. The place was huge! It had at least thirty different buildings and who knows how much space it took up. He cautiously walked around, seeing others surrounding him. A few looked at him with what appeared to be fear. He wondered why. He continued walking, now aware of how many eyes were following him as he did so.

"Hey, where's Kaien? I thought he said he wouldn't be late," Ichigo heard one guy ask his friend.

"I don't know," his friend replied. Then he saw Ichigo and said, "Oh! There he is. Hey, Kaien!"

Ichigo didn't answer to the name, which made even more people stare at him. It was his childhood all over again. But he wasn't going to answer to a name that wasn't his. Well...that wasn't entirely true. Takashi Arashi wasn't his name, but he had to answer to it. Then he felt his bag vibrating and reached into it and pulled out his phone. He looked at the screen and saw that it was his uncle. Dammit!

After a moment he answered it and said, "Hello?" His voice wasn't steady and he was sure that Kaze noticed.

"Where are you, Ichigo?" his uncle asked.

Ichigo hesitated for a moment, trying to think up an excuse that would save his sorry ass. "Uh...school." It sounded decent enough.

"What school?" his uncle asked. Ichigo mentally cursed the fact that he had smart people in his family.

"A new school."

Now his uncle was ticked off. "_Where_ is this new school?"

Ichigo replied casually, "Not far."

"Where the hell is 'not far'?" Kaze snapped.

This conversation was getting ridiculous, but what could Ichigo tell him? '_Oh, I'm faking dead in the Seireitei and going to a school for shinigamis. When will you be visiting?' _He'd be killed if they found out.

So, Ichigo waited for a moment before saying, "Out of town..."

"Dammit, Ichigo!" he heard Hiroshi and Takuto yell. He was obviously on speaker phone.

Ichigo looked around him and saw that everyone was still watching him. He had to end this conversation. And he had to end it right then. "Uh...I have to go." He hung up his phone and put it back in his bag. The other students had been looking at him for so long, they put their bags down and simply stood there.

"What?" he finally asked everyone. The looks they were giving him were getting aggravating.

No one seemed to want to say anything to him. He groaned and adjusted his bag on his shoulder and went over to a tree and jumped up the branches until he got to a spot that was comfortable. Then, when he was so high up, he saw why they were staring at him. It was a man that looked just about identical to him. The only differences were that the man's hair was slightly longer in the back, he was tanner, and he had blue eyes. Ichigo realized that this must be the man they mistook him for: Kaien. He didn't want to go anywhere near him. But then, he saw someone standing with the man they called 'Kaien' that he _definitely_ didn't want to go near.

Standing with Kaien was Yoruichi. She was in human form and was wearing her normal outfit, minus the orange top. She reminded him of Soi Fon. He figured that he'd better get his ass out of that tree and into another tree. He prepared to jump to a tree about a hundred feet away. But once he jumped, he felt someone grab him around his waist and was forced to the ground.

"Don't tell me you actually thought you'd be able to make that jump," a woman's voice said from above him. He opened his eyes and immediately saw Yoruichi, her face inches from his. "Ahhh!" he yelped and immediately struggled to get away, but his escape was blocked by a tree.

Yoruichi laughed and looked at him. He was still the innocent kid from before. She hadn't even been naked and he was blushing. It was so cute! "What's wrong with you? I'm just trying to help." She was going to have _so much fun!_

"Hey! Yoruichi! What happened over there?" he heard a man call from the group of students. Ichigo looked over Yoruichi's shoulder and saw Kaien running towards them. He tried to get away, but Yoruichi still had a grip on his waist and didn't seem to plan on letting go any time soon.

"I caught a kid!" she smiled down at Ichigo. He couldn't see her smile, she was holding him against her with his back to her, but he could feel it boring a hole into the back of his skull. He continued to struggle. Yoruichi stood to her full height bring Ichigo up with her. She seemed to only barely notice Ichigo's squirming form.

He looked down at Ichigo, who was trying to completely ignore the older man and escape. "What did you do to him?" Kaien laughed. He seemed to think that Ichigo's current situation was hilarious. Well, Ichigo decided to show him that it wasn't in the least bit funny!

"Let me go, dammit!" Ichigo tried to yell, but it was quickly muffled when Yoruichi put her hand over his mouth to shut him up.

"Oh, be quiet! I'm just having fun and you know it!" Yoruichi smiled. Ichigo looked up at her and glared, his eyes turning ice blue as his reiatsu began to rise. Her's and Kaien's eyes widened in shock and Yoruichi immediately let go of Ichigo.

Kaien recovered from his moment of shock and looked at Ichigo seriously with concern and asked, "Are you okay, kid?"

"I'm. Fine," Ichigo managed to say. Yoruichi knew that he didn't like being restrained. She shouldn't have done that. If she didn't want him to make that jump, she could have just said something.

"Yoruichi! Why did you do that?" Kaien snapped. He had to have had a younger sibling or child. He was too good at acting like a mature guardian.

Yoruichi rolled her eyes. "See that tree right behind me?" she asked, pointing to the tree that Ichigo jumped out of. Kaien looked at her in an odd way and nodded. She continued. "Now. See that tree that's about ninety five feet away from where we are now?" Kaien looked to the tree Ichigo had been aiming at and nodded. "He," she started, pointing at Ichigo, "tried to jump from the tree behind us to the one all the way over there." Well, she did a good job at making Ichigo look and feel like an idiot.

Kaien looked at from the first tree, to the second tree, to Ichigo. "Why the hell were you trying to do that?" Ichigo had to think of a lie and quick. This guy wasn't stupid.

"I was...uhh...bored," Ichigo said lamely. That was the best he could do. That's his story and he's gotta stick to it!

Kaien had a dull look on his face when he asked Ichigo, "You honestly expect me to believe that you did something that stupid because you were _bored?_"

Ichigo just looked at him. Damn. This guy was pretty damn smart. But where the hell did he get off acting like he had some sort of control over him. "Why am I answering your questions?" he asked Kaien. "I don't even know who the hell you are!"

Kaien looked down at Ichigo. He was obviously only fifteen or sixteen years old when he died. _'No wonder he's so naïve,' _he thought. But he did have a point. There wasn't much sense in answering the questions of someone you don't know or even recognize in the slightest way. Now that he thought about it, Kaien didn't know who the kid was either. But Yoruichi obviously did. He'd ask her later.

Kaien closed his eyes, smiled, and threw up his hands in defeat. "You win. I won't ask you anymore questions...for now. But you can ask me as many as you want."

Ichigo looked at the man. He was certainly...odd, but there was something else. He was like his dad, only calmer and less...well...insane. It was weird. While Ichigo didn't exactly like him right then, he seemed to realize that Kaien was okay. He'd wouldn't admit it right then.

When Ichigo didn't say anything, Kaien opened one eye and held his pose. He seemed to be lost in thought. He most likely hadn't heard a word that he'd said. That aggravated him a bit. Then, Ichigo moved and it scared the hell out of Kaien. He fell backward and landed on his ass while Ichigo stood up, looking around for who knew what.

"What's up?" Kaien asked him, regaining his composure as he stood up.

Ichigo barely heard him, but after a moment answered, "I could have sworn that...never mind."

"Tell me..." Yoruichi warned. She knew there was only a slight chance that he'd tell her, but it was worth a shot.

"It was nothing," Ichigo assured them. He knew Yoruichi wouldn't press the subject.

_**Attention all first year students! Report to the front of the courtyard immediately for the ceremony. Yoruichi Shihoin! Get your ass over with the other teachers. That will be all.**_

Ichigo looked over at Yoruichi and asked, "You're a teacher?"

Yoruichi smiled at him. "What did you think I was? A princess?" She knew that one would get both Ichigo _and _Kaien. She ruffled Ichigo's hair and took off. Ichigo wasn't a happy person. One: No one ruffles his hair. That's something that his mother used to do. Two: She restrained him, knowing that he did not like it. Three: Something was up with this Kaien guy, but he didn't know what.

When she's gone, Kaien looked at Ichigo and smiles a bit. The one thing that's going through Ichigo's mind is _'What the hell is he up to?' _ Then, Kaien simply says, "Shiba Kaien."

Ichigo fought against the urge to look surprised. A Shiba? He's related to Ganju and Kukaku? But he manages to keep a straight face and say, "Takash Arashi." Now it's Kaien's turn to look surprised. But Ichigo couldn't think of any reason for Kaien to be surprised.

They started toward the front of the courtyard. There was already a big group of people there, but still enough room to move up to the front of the crowd. Once they were where they wanted to be, they just stood there in silence waiting for the other students. About ten minutes later, the rest of the students lined up on either side of the path. Ichigo was confused and looked at Kaien.

"Why are we lining up?" he finally asked. Kaien just grinned.

"Can't tell you. It's supposed to be a surprise," he said.

"Okay...but what do we do _after _the ceremony?" Ichigo wanted an answer this time.

Kaien looked at Ichigo and gave a cheerful, but somehow evil grin and said, "That's a surprise too."

Before Ichigo could demand an answer, the stupid voice came over the intercom again.

_**Attention students! The ceremony has now begun. Welcome the captains of the Gotei Thirteen! Yamamoto – first division taichou, Soi Fon – second division taichou, Unohana – fourth division taichou, Kuchiki – sixth division taichou, Komamura – seventh division taichou, ? - eighth division taichou, Hitsugaya – tenth division taichou, Kurotsuchi – eleventh division taichou, Ukitake – thirteenth division taichou! Third division taichou is still to be announced. Also, Zaraki-taichou will not be joining us by request of the head taichou!  
**_

Yamamoto looked at Ichigo and gave a small smirk. There must have been something they didn't tell him about his damn school. All of the taichous seemed to recognize him as they passed by. Soi Fon's eyes simply widened, Unohana gave him a warm smile as always, Kuchiki looked like he wanted to kill him: nothing new there, he didn't know what Komamura was doing but he looked at him, ? Stumbled by as he saw him (he was obviously drunk), Hitsugaya just nodded at him, the little brat; He didn't bother looking at Kurotsuchi, and Ukitake smiled and waved at him. This time Ichigo smiled back. If he was stuck in a division, he wanted it to be Ukitake's.

When they reached the very front, the students turned to face them. Again, Kaien had placed them at the best spot so they were in front both times. They all settled themselves and Yamamoto began to speak.

"Welcome to Shinigami Academy. Here, you are taught in kidou, sword techniques, hand-to-hand combat, and footwork, history, reiatsu control, and you'll have a study skills class so that you can have time to get your homework done. They are the basics of what you will need to know to be a shinigami. We've had many students pass through here and give up. Don't be like them. We are extremely short on shinigami since the war. There are captain spaces available as well. The lieutenants decided that they are not ready to be captains yet. We all hope that you will become as great as we hope you do."

When Yamamoto finished his relatively short speech, every started clapping, as did Ichigo, but he was still confused. Was this it? How was this such a big deal? Then, when he least expected it, all the fukutaichous, and in the thirteenth division's case, Rukia, appeared out of nowhere. What was worse was that each of them, including the taichous, had drawn their zanpaktou.

"And now," Yamamoto started, "we will begin a tradition we've had at this school for centuries. Open sparring." Ichigo didn't like this at all. "Everyone will get a chance to spar with a taichou and a fukutaichou. Just don't get too badly hurt. Now I will draw the first name who will spar with Kuchiki Rukia." He reached into the bag or whatever it was and pulled out the first name. "Takashi Arashi," he called out.

Ichigo groaned. Perfect. How the hell did he get stuck with the midget? He couldn't fight her fairly; not after everything he went through to keep her safe. And they all knew that! So why didn't they draw again? There was another reason, he just couldn't exactly place what it was. After a moment, he saw Rukia staring at him. Then he remembered that they were supposed to be sparring. But wait...how would he spar without Zangetsu?

Rukia seemed to notice Ichigo's confusion and explained, "We'll only use hand-to-hand combat. It wouldn't be fair to you first years, seeing as you don't have your zanpakutou yet." She had that smirk on her face that for some reason always managed to tick him off.

"Then why the hell did they draw their zanpaktous?" he asked her seriously.

"Just to scare you."

"Watch what you say, midget!" Ichigo growled and waited for Yamamoto to say they could begin.

When the old man finally gave the go-ahead signal, Rukia jumped at him, and Ichigo easily dodged the half-assed attack. She threw a punch at him and he caught her wrist, attempting to twist it around, but she simply jumped over his back, trying to regain the initiative. Ichigo was expecting that. He released her wrist and threw a light punch at her. It hit her on the upper arm and she winced a little. Ichigo frowned. He didn't mean to hit her that hard. New rule: he'd only attack if he was sure she could dodge it and not get hurt.

Rukia caught a quick glimpse of the frown and said, "Stop going easy on me! You're not going to hurt me!"

"I just did a minute ago. I bet that if you lifted up your sleeve, you'd see a pretty bad bruise forming right now," he snapped, angry at himself for thinking that he could attack and still not hurt her. They stood still for a moment for Rukia to check her arm. Sure enough, when she lifted her sleeve, there was a large, purple bruise forming. No sign of black, or the yellow that showed that it was healing.

"It's fine," Rukia assured him and got back into a defensive stance. Ichigo still wasn't sure about continuing the sparring match. That was the lightest punch he could throw and he didn't want to hurt her. His body was hard and used to being beaten up, while Rukia's was small and fragile. Another punch from Ichigo could break a bone.

Despite Ichigo's discomfort, they prepared to fight again. Rukia lunged at him like she had before and Ichigo began blocking again. Ichigo thought up a plan to end this match. He ran it over through his head as he dodged Rukia's attacks and threw out a few of his own that he was sure would look authentic, but were designed for Rukia to be able to dodge them. The plan was brilliant. There was absolutely no way that she'd be able to restart the match when he put _this_ plan into affect.

As Rukia prepared to kick him, Ichigo dodged out of the way and stood behind her. He was sure that this scared the hell out of her. He grabbed her around the waist with her arms to her side and stood to his full height so that her feet were dangling about one foot off the ground. She kicked around helplessly and even raised her reiatsu as high as she could without becoming tired. She quit this plan when she noticed that she knocked the breath out of most of the fukutaichous. Finally, she accepted defeat. Ichigo smirked and let her down. When her feet finally touched down on solid ground, she glared up at him, with a very noticeable blush spreading across her face.

Ichigo looked around and realized that they'd been the demonstration. He'd noticed that before obviously; when you were fighting, you had to be aware of everything around you, but he couldn't stop to ask them. He was too busy trying not to kill the midget. They all looked surprised. He wasn't sure if it was because he'd stop to see if she was hurt or that he managed to make her immobile. He didn't really care. If he was right about this being a demonstration, then he had done good.

"And _that_ is what I want to see all of you doing," Yamamoto explained. "If one of you gets hurt in the sparring match, _stop and see if you're partner is injured!_" The last part was obviously important. "Takashi Arashi; you are going to spar with a captain now. It will not be Kuchiki-taichou, I can assure you of that."

Ichigo spared a glance for the cold eyed taichou. He hated him and it was a very good thing they didn't have to fight each other. He could end up going bankai on his stuck up ass without a second thought. Then a thought accured to him. He'd have to achieve everything all over again. His zanpaktou's true form, shikai, and bankai. Dammit! He'd worked so hard for that, but since he'd done it once, he'd do it again. Maybe getting it in one day instead of five or six. And this time there was nothing to pressure him.

Kaien was looking at him. It was a smile, but somehow...well, there was no real way to describe that look. It wasn't guarded, dangerous, and didn't seem to have a hidden motive. It was well, normal. Nice, gentle and encouraging. Then he felt Rukia tense beside him. He looked down at her and saw that she was looking at Kaien. Did they know each other or something? There was no way to know.

Kaien walked forward and stopped once he was in front of Ichigo and Rukia. "Nice! You show a lot of promise, kid!" he smiled. Then his gaze turned towards Rukia and his expression turned from exited to gentle. Ichigo looked down at her again and saw that she wasn't her hyper self at all. She actually seemed uncomfortable in a matter of speaking. She wasn't looking at either of them and seemed, well, timid. It was surprising. Kaien placed his hand on her head and she moved her gaze to his face. He had this weird grin. She seemed to calm down slightly, but still slightly uncomfortable.

Then Ichigo thought back to when they were reunited in Hueco Mundo. When Unohana-taichou had been dressing her wounds, she'd looked like she'd been betrayed by someone she'd cared about. When they'd first found Orihime gone, she was more than determined to get her back; when they got separated, her reiatsu felt normal and she seemed to be calm; when she'd fought the thirteenth espada, she'd been calm, collected, and deadly; but when she'd come back from her fight, she just wasn't the same. She almost seemed to have lost the will to live for a while. That scared Ichigo.

"Kaien, would you like to see how much your student has improved?" Yamamoto asked, breaking the tense silence.

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A/N: This was very long. About 3,500 words all together. It took a long time to finish this chapter. I didn't want to stop. My path for my senior year in high school in English will be an honors writing class. That was kind of random, but oh well. I'll post the next chapter soon.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I just want to sleep!

Yeah, I'm tired, but there's nothing I can do about it right now. I'm listening to an addictive song and there is no chance that I'll be able to sleep now. So I figured I'd give you guys some entertainment for a while...Yeah, just read the story...

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Kaien looked at Rukia and smirked. "Yeah. I want to see if she can focus on fighting instead of not hurting herself," he chuckled. Rukia blushed and glared at him. Ichigo was satisfied. Her attitude was back.

"It's settled then. Kaien, Rukia, go to the field over there. Takashi, go watch them and make sure Rukia doesn't kill him for that remark," Yamamoto instructed. They all nodded in agreement and headed over to the field as instructed as Yamamoto went back to assigning students to fight a random shinigami.

When they finally reached the field, Ichigo jumped up onto a branch in a nearby tree and Rukia and Kaien got in defensive stances. Kaien didn't have a zanpaktou, so they had to fight hand-to-hand combat like everyone else. Ichigo observed them from the same spot in the tree for the whole time.

"Hmm..." Kaien observed her stance. Rukia couldn't tell what he was thinking. Then he smiled and said, "Your stance has improved. Does this mean that you won't fall over when I attack?" She knew he was teasing, but thought it wasn't necessary. Not with Ichigo right above them in the tree.

"Shut up!" she said, obviously not amused. Kaien laughed. It was so fun to tease her. He was still the same, but after fighting the hollow that killed him, she wasn't sure if he was real. No. He was real. The espada had to wear a glove over one hand. This man's hand was pure skin. She wondered if she should tell someone that she found out that the thirteenth espada was still alive...

Before she could think about it any more, Kaien attacked. Naturally, he started with a clean punch in the stomach. Rukia quickly stepped out of the way and had to remember that his wasn't the espada. Just normal, reincarnated Kaien Shiba, former fukutaichou of the thirteenth division. She smirked when Kaien looked slightly surprised. He'd used shunpo and she was never too good at dodging his attacks.

"You _have _improved!" Kaien said, sounding truly surprised.

Rukia threw a kick at him when he let his guard down and sent him flying. Unfortunately for her, he landed on his feet and attacked again. They fought like that for a while, attacking, defending, dodging, and attacking again. Then, without warning, Rukia's reiatsu rose to it's highest level, knocking the breath out of everyone, and blood began to soak the front of her robes. Her wound from fighting the espada had reopened. She began to collapse, but Kaien caught her before she hit the ground. Ichigo shouted, "Rukia!" and jumped from his spot in the tree. All the captains used shunpo to get to Rukia.

Ukitake looked at Rukia and gravely asked, "What happened, Kaien?"

Kaien looked scared. He almost couldn't speak. "I don't know," he muttered. "She just collapsed."

All the captains looked at Ichigo. His eyes were turning blue again and Yoruichi layed a hand on his shoulder and knelt down beside him and whispered, "It's not your fault."

Ichigo didn't relax at the statement. It was his fault and he knew it. He's the one who let Aizen capture Orihime; he's the one that dragged them all to Hueco Mundo; he's the one that couldn't protect her. Yoruichi noticed this and said, "Calm down. Now!"

"This is as calm as I'm going to get," he snapped.

Everyone looked at Ichigo. He'd just snapped at a teacher. The strangest thing was that Yoruichi didn't seem to care. Her expression softened and she thought, _'He's not going to snap out of it. This is bad. I've never seen him so angry.' _Then she got an idea. "Why don't you and Kaien go and vist Kuukaku? I'm sure she needs some help. Ganju's off on a trip right now," she suggested.

Kaien looked at Ichigo and knew what he was thinking. "It might be a good idea, you know. You need to calm down a bit. Rukia's going to be fine,"

"**Yes. She'll be just fine,"**a mocking voice said from behind. Ichigo knew that voice. It was the one that killed the person he'd loved the most. He turned around to look at Grande Fisher. He was the same, hairy monster he remembered, but this time it had a zanpaktou. It was an arrancar.

"**You see? You can't protect anyone. I'll kill everyone, you know. No one can stop me, certainly not you!" **it laughed. He started focusing his reiatsu into his right hand, but right before the process was complete Grande Fisher said, **"You do realize I didn't devour her, right?" **then slipped into Hueco Mundo. Ichigo just stood there with his eyes wide.

Kaien placed a hand on his shoulder and asked, "Hey, are you okay? Arashi?" He looked around and saw that everyone had a sad expression on their face. He wondered why. He'd ask Ukitake later, or maybe even Yoruichi.

"I'm fine. I'm not going anywhere," Ichigo assured them, sounding more normal by the second. He looked at Yoruichi and she saw, thankfully, that his eyes were no longer blue.

"Are you sure? You can go anywhere you want until classes start."

Ichigo looked over to where the captains were standing and he could have sworn that Byakuya looked....looked...well, not like a total, stuck up bastard.

"I said I'm fine!" Ichigo snapped. He was smiling and seemed to be back to normal. "I should be used to a little blood by now. I don't know why I'm over-reacting." Then he added in a whisper, "But it is my fault."

In not even a second, Byakuya was next to him with his hand on Ichigo's head saying, "That's it! If you say that one more time, I will not hesitate to kill you!" Ichigo just looked at him like 'What the hell?', but Kaien was laughing. Ichigo looked around and noticed that all the students were gone.

"We sent them all to fields on the other side of the school," Yoruichi said, guessing Ichigo's question. "They have no idea what's going on."

"We'll cancel the rest of the sparring. I'm guessing that no one is in any shape to fight us after fighting the fukutaichous," he laughed.

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A/N: Yeah, I know this chapter was short. I'm getting writer's block again. I think it's from writing so much. Well, you got two long chapters, so I'll get more eventually.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the plot and secondary characters.

Just read this before I fall asleep. I'll be using a couple songs later in the story as old lullabies. If you havn't heard the songs, you might want to check them out when I tell you what they are. They're good songs.

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"Are you okay?" Yoruichi asked him again.

"Yeah." he said. This time it wasn't a lie. Maybe it was the stress of having for responsibility that made him over-react, but right now he didn't care. He'd had a lot more wounds in one day than Rukia had in one week. She got worried, but at least she didn't over-react like he did.

"Are you lying?" Byakuya asked from a few feet away. Even a small amount of physical contact affected him in a negative way. He placed his hand on Senbonsakura.

Ichigo's eyes widened. Would he really attack him on school campus? "I'm not lying!"

Byakuya smirked. "Good."

"The students began to come back from sparring with the fukutaichous. They looked worn out and Yamamoto thought of this as a good time to tell them that he was canceling the rest of the sparring matches. He announced, "Seeing as none of you are in any shape to spar a taichou, the rest of the sparring matches have been canceled."

No one seemed to be upset by this, so Yamamoto continued, "Instead, we'll jump right into introducing your teachers. Your Kidou teacher: Samaka Ryosuki, your Sword Techniques teacher: Kotani Shitomi, your Footwork teacher: Shihouin Yoruichi, your History teacher: Tsukomori Kage, your Reiatsu Control teacher: Zuzuki Nana, and your Hand-to-Hand Combat and Study Skills teacher: Kurosaki Masaki," after announcing each teacher, his eyes immediately moved to Ichigo's face. It was grave, sad, angry, and somehow happy and relieved.

"Now. In alphabetical order, I want you to go get your schedules and books. You will not all have the same classes. You will be divided into four groups. The first group will be low level, the second is medium level, and the third is high level, and the fourth level will be advanced. So far only two people will be placed in advanced. One of them was a fukutaichou, but got reincarnated twice, but they still need to get their reiatsu measured. You will notice them by the fact that they already have their books." Again, his eyes strayed to Ichigo. He looked uneasy.

Everyone looked confused at this. Who were these two students? Even the teachers looked around. Who were these students and how did they already get placed. But no one said a word. Only an idiot would question the head taichou.

"You are dismissed," Yamamoto finished. Ichigo still looked frantic. How was he going to get his reiatsu measured? He'd destroy the school! Hell, he'd destroy everything!

He quickly ran up to Ukitake as he began wandering around the students. "How the hell am I supposed to get my reiatsu measured?!" Ukitake smiled at the teenager. It was hilarious. Someone who fought in the war and killed espada was panicking about getting his reiatsu measured? Ironic.

"Calm down, Ichigo," he said once they were out of everyone's vocal range. "Just release enough of your reiatsu so that you can be ranked."

"Ranked as what?" Ichigo asked.

"There are more than four ways of being ranked. There's low, medium, high, advanced, lieutenant, taichou, and insane," Ukitake added the last one just to see Ichigo smile some. It worked.

"So there are six ways of being ranked?" Ichigo confirmed what the taichou was saying.

Ukitake smiled again and said, "No, there are seven. I wasn't joking about the last one. We just don't have a name for that level. _You _are way beyond the last level. In your case, we'd need to make an extra six or so levels." He looked at Ichigo and immediately knew that he thought he was joking.

"I'm not that powerful, Ukitake-san," Ichigo laughed.

Ukitake's face turned serious. "Oh, yes you are. You just haven't unleashed that power. Go ahead and ask Zangetsu the next chance you get. I'm sure he'll tell you the same. You've got your natural power, shikai, bankai, your hollow powers, and you still have more, Ichigo."

"Your not kidding..." Ichigo finally realized.

Ukitake grinned and said, "Would I lie?"

"No," Ichigo's good mood was finally back. "So just release enough so that it scares the crap out of them and most likely knocks them out?"

"Pretty much."

"Hey, Ukitake!" Kaien yelled from only a few feet away.

Ukitake laughed and cried, "Oh no! My headache's back!" Ichigo laughed.

"Why the hell do I have to go to school again?" Kaien complained. Ichigo looked at him. _He_ was a former fukutaichou?

"You know why, Kaien," Ukitake said it like he had a million times before.

"It's stupid though! Too bad it's impossible to be shinigami while you're alive," he muttered. Ichigo did a double take. It wasn't impossible. He looked to Ukitake for guidance, but got none. He was trying to ignore Kaien. Was it really supposed to be impossible to be a living shinigami?

"Ukitake-san..." but a hand clamped over his mouth. He fought against it, but when he stepped back, he realized that it was a woman. Ichigo face turned red. Yoruichi. He tried to scream, "Dammit! Lemme go!" but it was muffled by her hand.

"Calm down, Arashi-kun. Whatever questions you have can be answered in class," she said and dragged him off to the lines where they'd be getting their things. "See that line there?" she asked pointing to a long line with students. "You will go through that line, get your schedule, and leave before they can try to give you books." she smirked at the last part. She still had her hand over his mouth, so all he could do was nod. She finally let go of him and pushed him in line.

He stood in that line for a while until he was only a few people away. There was two people standing at the front. One was Samaka Ryosuki, but he couldn't see the other person. When he was the next one up, he saw that the other person was his mother. Yoruichi would die for this.

"Takashi Arashi?" Masaki asked him with the smile that he hadn't seen in seven years.

"Yes," Ichigo answered weakly.

"Here is your schedule, and your..." she dragged off noticing that he wasn't looking to great.

"Are you alright?" she asked, her maternal instincts kicking in.

Ichigo barely choked out, "Yes." He began to walk away and immediately felt his wounds begin to reopen from being so tense. The last fight had only been a four days ago, so he didn't know why they had to get back to working hard again. Even though Aizen was still alive...

"Hey!" he heard the other teacher, Samaka Ryosuki, shout. "What about your books?!"

"I already have them."

"Y-your one of those students, aren't you?" he asked cautiously. Masaki stood silently behind him, waiting for a response. He couldn't even look her in the eye. She noticed this.

"Young, man! Why won't you look me in the eye?" she was aggravated with him. Now he was about to cry.

"...I just can't. Not after what I've done..." he whispered to himself. His mother didn't hear exactly what he said, but she knew he said something. Luckily, Byakuya caught sight of him and said, "Perfect. Just perfect!"

Before he actually started crying, Ichigo used shunpo to get away from there as fast as he could, leaving a very confused group of people in his wake.

"Wait!" Masaki managed to call after him, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her. It was Byakuya.

"Leave him alone for now," Byakuya said, staring at where the teen had been only moments before.

"What's wrong?" she asked him, worried about the student who looked barely sixteen.

Byakuya shook his head and said, "It's not my place to tell you. Even if I did tell you, he'd probably kill me for it later..." He pondered the thought of another fight with Ichigo and shuddered slightly. Not with him being able to turn into a hybrid.

Rukia walked forward clutching her stomach lightly. "What happened?" she asked looking around for Ichigo.

"Your boyfriend is having a panic attack," Yoruichi said lightly though it didn't reach her eyes at all.

Rukia blushed, but tried to ignore the comment, which made Byakuya _very _upset that Yoruichi had even said something like that. "What do you..." she started to say, but then she looked at Yoruichi, Byakuya, and finally, her eyes rested on Masaki. Oh, no.

"He didn't..." she said, beginning to panic herself. "Where'd he go?" She was worried that he'd do something stupid and destroy something.

"Leave him be for a while, Rukia," Ukitake instructed, scaring the daylights out of everyone.

"But..." Rukia tried to choke out, but Ukitake held up a hand to silence her.

"You can go get him about half an hour before classes start."

Ichigo continued running and the tears began to flow down his face. He couldn't stop him and at this point, he didn't want to. Why the hell didn't he let Aizen kill him during the damn war?! It would've save him a load of pain that he was feeling now.

He stopped at a tree a few meters away from a cliff. He sat down against it and placed his head in his hands, trying to block out the images of himself crying over his mother's dead body. It was his fault she was here in the first place. He chose to go after that damn girl and instead of the hollow going after him, it got his mother. Why the hell did she have to jump in the way? She didn't have to die just because he screwed up! He continued to cry, shaking uncontrollably. If he had all that extra power like Ukitake told him, then why couldn't he protect anyone?

He heard someone walking slowly towards him. They were hiding their reiatsu, so he couldn't tell who it was. "Whoever it is, go away!" he tried to hide the fact that he was crying, but failed miserably. He couldn't breathe.

Whoever it was continued walking towards him. "Arashi?" a small voice squeaked. It was Kanami.

"What are you doing here, Kanami?" Ichigo asked quietly. He heard her step away slightly.

"Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine," he said as he wiped the tears from his face. They were still coming out. Dammit. Kanami walked over and sat in his lap and curled up against him. His expression softened. He used to do that with the older members of his family. Even Hiroshi. He closed his eyes as well and soon, both of them had fallen asleep.

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A/N: Yeah, not extremely long, but long enough for now. I'm surprised this story has gotten this long already. I've been writing this story since November 2 and it's December 8 right now. That's a long time. See you at the next chapter.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own nothing...wait...that was a double negative. Correction: I don't own Bleach or any of its characters.

Yeah...I don't have much to say right now. I'm really tired. Oh, and in case you are confused, I am having Rubia wake him up early on purpose. They expected him to be gone for the rest of the night. Just to clear things up.

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Ichigo jumped awake when he felt someone shaking his shoulder. Before glaring at whoever woke him up, he looked down to his lap to see that Kanamii had gone home. He hadn't even felt her move. That was odd. He was never a deep sleeper. He stood up and looked around. It was already dusk. That was bad. Classes didn't start until the next day, but he had to get everything sorted out first. He slept through the whole day. Well, it was better than going off and revealing who he was.

He looked behind him and saw Rukia. She was short, but impossible to miss. "Ichigo, are you okay?" she sounded serious. She knew that this was a sensitive matter.

"Yeah."

She looked at him closely and said, "You can miss tomorrow if you want. You can catch up." She obviously didn't realize that if he missed one day on purpose, he'd make it into a habit.

"No, it's okay. I'll go," he said smiling as he looked down at Rukia. She still looked so serious. "So...What'd I miss?"

She relaxed, a little, at the question and answered, "You got your dorm assignment and Yamamoto just kept talking. Nothing really important. Kaien was a little worried too. He's looking for you right now."

Ichigo laughed softly. Why was it that people who didn't even know him got so worried about him? "Why? I just got a little upset. It's nothing to worry over."

"Ichigo..." she started to say, but he cut her off.

"I know what you're going to say and it won't work. If I can't handle this, then there's really no point in being a shinigami, now is there?" he smiled a little to make her believe him. It worked every other time, so why not now?

She seemed a little hesitant, but she left it alone. "Okay, but one more time, Ichigo..." she warned. Ichigo just smiled at the look she was giving her and turned away and looked around some more. He was amazed at how difficult this would turn out to be.

"Why were you looking around? Were you looking for someone?" Rukia asked.

Ichigo paused. Should he tell her about Kanami? Nah. It might create more problems for him while he was there. "No. I just got confused for a minute." She seemed to believe this and shrugged off whatever other questions she had for him.

They began walking back to the school. She said that his stuff was already in his dorm room, but she wouldn't tell him who his roommate was. He tried to get her to tell him, but she was back to being stubborn. Apparently there was four people to a dorm. They were big dorms. And they also mixed first years with other year students. That made Ichigo a little uneasy. He would make sure to sleep with one eye open, just like in Hueco Mundo.

They finally got back to the school. No one was outside. They were probably inside unpacking. That made Ichigo feel a little better. He wouldn't have to face anybody who might've seen his break down. Now that he thought about it, it was a little embarrassing that he had almost cried in front of all those people. Other than that, his reaction was fairly normal for him. Last time he nearly put a crater in the ground.

They walked to one of the many large buildings out of maybe the thirty or so that were there. Thankfully, their were elevators. Thank the heavens!...or...never mind. They reached the fifth floor, there were about seven, and walked down the winding hallways. It was too much like the damn Seireitei! They got to room 213 and they stopped.

"This is your room, I'm not sure if your roommates are there or not. I'll be here at the end of the month so that I can take your homework to the living world." He gave her an expectant look and she quickly added, "I won't tell your family anything they don't need to know." Ichigo seemed satisfied and she walked away. He didn't even touch the door until she was out of sight.

When she turned at a corner, Ichigo took a deep breath and opened the door. He looked inside before walking in and noticed that there was no one there. What a relief! He'd be prepared when his roommates came in...or not...

He heard the door open and saw three men come in. One was Kaien, and the other two were huge! They looked like weight lifters...Kinda like Kenpachi. That thought made Ichigo shudder. He noticed that Kaien didn't seem to like them much. He looked on their sleeves and they had six stripes. Great. Just great.

Kaien saw him and immediately looked concerned. "Arashi! Where the hell were you?!" Ichigo groaned. His entire torso felt like it was on fire.

"I wasn't feeling so great. I can't be around people when that happens," Ichigo said. Kaien looked at him suspiciously, but Ichigo didn't notice. His eyes were locked on the two guys standing behind him. They had their bags hanging from their shoulders. They were obviously twins. They had the same blond hair and blue eyes. There was no way Ichigo would be able to tell who was who. Hell, he didn't know who they were yet!

They were looking at him in a way that he didn't like. Well, one of them was. The other was smiling. Odd. Well, not really. He was used to twins having opposite personalities. Look at Yuzu and Karin. Yuzu was the mature and sensitive one while Karin was tough and rarely showed her emotions. But this was scary. They were huge and there was a possibility of a personality disorder in one or both of them.

The one twin was still looking at Ichigo with disgust. "Why the hell do you think you can be a shinigami? You're a damn twig!" he scoffed. Ichigo just glared at him. He didn't think that it was very smart to pick a fight right now. Not with how bad his wounds were hurting.

"My reasons for being here are none of your business," Ichigo said. Kaien looked at him in surprise. He thought that Ichigo was picking a fight with this guy.

"Really..." the man narrowed his eyes and his brother quickly stood in front of him, smiling apologetically.

"Sorry! My brother has a few...uh...anger problems. I'm Koseki and that's Hakushi," the giant called Koseki said. Now Ichigo knew how to tell them apart: their attitudes. Then he asked the same question his brother did, only nicer. "Why do you want to be a shinigami? You're just a kid." Even Kaien seemed curious.

Ichigo frowned and said, "Sorry, but I don't feel comfortable discussing it. Especially not here." They seemed to understand. Even Hakushi's hard face softened seeing how upset the subject made Ichigo.

"What's your name?" Hakushi asked, remembering that Ichigo knew their name, but they didn't know his.

"Ttakashi Arashi."

They both smiled and Kaien finally relaxed. Ichigo was still frowning despite the fact that they'd left him alone on the subject. Thankfully, they didn't seem to notice this. Instead, they went straight to unpacking. They all had family pictures, but he didn't pay attention to anyone's except for Kaien's.

When Ichigo saw the people in the pictures he was setting up, his heart almost stopped. They were pictures of his family. Even recent ones from only just before and after he'd met Rukia. She was in a lot of them. Strangely, she was always standing next to Ichigo. He shoved this thought out of his mind, thinking that it was just because he was the only person in his family that was actually completely sane and/or mature. But why the hell did he have all these pictures. Ichigo had all the same pictures in his bag. There were pictures from birthdays, picnics, school pictures of Yuzu, Karin, and Ichigo, and then there were pictures that he'd never seen before. They were of the Shiba's, but for some odd reason, his dad was in almost every single one of them. Kaien was laughing and talking to Koseki and Hakushi.

Before any of them could notice him looking at the pictures along with them, he looked back to his stuff, pushing his pictures to the back of the pile. After he'd gotten everything out of his bag and onto his bed, he closed his bag and placed it to the side. Kaien looked at Ichigo and placed the pictures aside.

"Hey, where are your family pictures?" Koseki asked. They were all looking at him. Ichigo looked around the room and noticed that they all had their family pictures hung around the room.

"I don't have any," Ichigo said. He knew they were going to continue asking questions, but he didn't care.

"What do you me..." Hakushi started to ask, but was cut off by Ichigo's phone ringing. He pulled it out of his pocket and the caller ID said 'Dad'. Crap.

He got up and walked over towards the door and answered it, saying, "Hello?" he walked out into the hallway and waited for Isshin to answer him.

"Helloooo, Ichigo!" Isshin shouted, making Ichigo wince at the loud noise.

"You, know? It's a good thing I just left my dorm room. You would have scared the life out of them if I'd stayed in there," Ichigo said flatly. His dad would never change.

"I thought you said, you'd visit?" Isshin complained in a nasally voice he used when he wanted to be super annoying.

Ichigo groaned and snapped, "What the hell? It's not even the first day, you idiot!"

"Watch your mouth, Ichigo," he heard Hiroshi say. Dammit. What was it with his family and speaker phone?

Ichigo tensed up when he heard Hiroshi's voice and immediately regretted it. The pressure started to reopen his wounds. He felt blood begin to spread across the front of his robes.

"Arashi-kun!" he heard Sumaka-sensei say from behind him. He sounded surprised to see him. His guess was right. "When did you get back? We weren't expecting you back until tomorrow!"

Ichigo didn't turn around to answer his teacher. Instead, he listened to his annoying father on the phone and focused on keeping his blood in his body for as long as he could.

"Kurosaki-san! Arashi-kun is back!" Ichigo heard. His dad was still babbling on about how much they all missed him and there were a few random questions from other family members in the background.

"Did a friend of yours just get back? I heard someone say something along the lines of 'Kurosaki-san! Arashi-kun is back!'" Isshin asked, curious.

Ichigo tried to come up with an excuse to tell his father. He was doing that a lot lately. "Uh...yeah. I'd better go. See ya," he finished and hung up the phone before any of them could ask questions.

"I-is that blood?" Sumaka-sensei sounded astonished. Apparently he'd seen the blood that had flowed out of Ichigo's wounds. Oh, joy. Someone else to lie to. He was beginning to get sick of hiding who he was, and it wasn't even his first day of classes yet.

"It's nothing," Ichigo said evenly. He wondered if his mother was close enough to see all the blood that had been spilling from his body for the past ten minutes. He hoped she hadn't. Maybe he could get out of there before she did get close enough.

"Oh, my..." a voice from behind him gasped. Too late. Instead of turning around and saying something stupid, he settled on simply walking away as fast as he could. Unfortunately, he wasn't going anywhere.

"Wait!" Masaki said from behind him. Wow. She wasn't upset with him? She was worried? Why? She didn't even know who he was...yet. She grabbed his shoulder and held him in place. He was amazed by her strength. Well, not really. She'd have to be strong in order to get a teaching job around here. She tried to turn him around to face her, but he stood firm. There was no way she was going to see the sadness and recognition that was surely visible by looking at his eyes.

"Why are you bleeding?" she sounded stricken. Perfect. Now he couldn't try to leave. He just wasn't raised the way he was to walk away from someone who was concerned and wanted to help him. And the woman trying to help him raised him that way, so there was no way in hell that he was going anywhere but the infirmary.

He didn't answer her. Instead he let her turn him around to face her. What the hell? Might as well get it over with now. When she saw his face she gasped. Thankfully not completely for the reasons he was thinking of. Just his eyes.

"Your eyes...They're like my son's..." she trailed off. She snapped out of it and took control of what was going on again. "We need to get you to the infirmary. Now." She started pushing Ichigo in the opposite direction of where he was headed and he didn't try to get away this time. What was the point? Then a thought occurred to him.

What would they say when they saw all of his scars? Crap. Didn't think of that one.

"Uh...I'm fine. I can handle this myself," Ichigo tried to convince them. His mother just looked at him. He never thought he'd see the day where he'd have to lie to his own mother. This sucked.

"Really? I still think you need to go to the infirmary," she smiled at him. He looked away, which only made her worry more.

"Why won't you look at me? Was it because I snapped at you earlier?" she asked him. His eyes widened in surprise. Did she really have to bring that up now?

"It wasn't you I was frustrated with," she laughed. "It was Kaien. I saw him in the background messing with some of the other students!" Well, that answered one question. Now for the big one. Why was she here in the first place.

"He's not that frustrating," Ichigo said. He didn't normally disagree with his mom, but he had a point here. Look at Isshin...

Sumaka-sensei barked out a laugh and asked, "What do you know about frustrating people?"

Ichigo grimaced, thinking of how frustrating his father was and said, "Yeah, you don't want to know." They looked at the expression on his face and laughed.

"Now, will you go to the infirmiry? Unohana-taicho is there. Seeing as there is so much blood coming from your wound, she should handle it," Sumaka-sensei explained. Ichigo considered it now that he knew Unohana was there. She was the one who'd fixed the wounds up the first time.

"Okay," he answered. They looked surprised that all it had taken was saying that Unohana-taichou was there. They started walking down the confusing hallways that would eventually lead to the infirmiry. No one said a word. Masaki and Sumaka-sensei were amazed that Ichigo could stay conscious.

While the other two were wondering how Ichigo was still able to move, Ichigo was concentrating on how to stay conscious. He'd lost a lot of blood and continuing towards the infirmary was not getting any easier. The only reason he was going with them to see Unohana-taichou was because she was the once who patched him up in the first place. She wouldn't be surprised by all the scars he had covering his torso. Most of the ones he'd gotten were long gone, but a few still remained. Including the one Byakuya bestowed upon him in the world of the living. Yeah, he was still going to pay for that.

When they finally reached the infirmary, the people who were occupying the large room looked taken back by all the blood coming from Ichigo's wound. He mentally smiled at them. What? Hadn't they seen a injured person before? Seeing as most of them were ranked shinigami, this shouldn't surprise them.

One man looked unusually upset. He looked at Ichigo with a look of hatred that terrified everyone in the room, excluding Masaki and Ichigo.

"What the hell?!" the man shouted at Ichigo. "It's the first day and you were already in a fight?" He continued yelling and Ichigo just tuned him out and observed the crazy man before him. He was tall – taller than Ichigo – and muscular. His hair was short, neat, and white, but none of it had fallen out. He didn't look especially young though. After a minute, Ichigo couldn't tune him out anymore, but thankfully, Masaki interrupted him.

"Excuse me, Koiyo-san," she started. "but Arashi-kun needs to see Unohana-taichou immediately." Judging from the unreadable look on her face, she didn't like this guy any more than Ichigo did.

"Well, he'll have to settle for the school's healer. Unohana-taichou is very busy." he looked Ichigo up and down and grimaced. His originally white shirt was completely covered in his blood and he was paler than snow.

"What's going on out here?" a kind voice asked from a doorway to Ichigo's left. "Oh, my...!" He looked over to see Unohana walking briskly towards him. Ichigo was feeling weaker with every second that passed and now he was about to pass out. He'd been fighting the blood loss for a while, but couldn't exactly remember how long it had been. He wondered what had drawn Unohana out here, but then realized that Sumaka-sensei was nowhere to be found, which meant that he'd gone to get Unohana. Hmmm...maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

"Some kid got in a fight!" Koiyo said, still infuriated. Ichigo glared at him, ignoring the knowing looks he got in return.

Unohana looked at Ichigo and was immediately worried. His skin was paler than snow and there was no trace of the origninal white shirt underneath the crimson. She was amazed that he was still alive and started to hate the headmaster more than she originally did. He was a stubborn man who knew absolutely nothing. Why had Yamamoto assigned him as headmaster?

"Get him in here. Now!" she ordered Masaki and Sumaka-sensei. She helped them along with the task. Ichigo was dead weight now and she was afraid that if he lost consciousness now, he'd never wake up. She spared a quick glance for Masaki. She must have been worried about the boy, even if she didn't know that he was her son. When her eyes rested on Masaki's face, she gasped. Masaki looked scared to death and very determined to protect the new student. _'Hmm...' _Unohana thought. _'Must be the maternal instincts kicking in.'_ They carried him into the infirmary's intensive unit and put him on one of the beds.

She motioned for the two concerned teachers to step back as she removed Ichigo's shirt, revealing the scars that ran across his torso. Both Unohana and the semi-conscious Ichigo heard two startled gasps from across the room.

"Someone get them out of here!" Unohana ordered. This didn't surprise Ichigo. She'd been cool and in charge during the war as well, so he was used to it. They didn't need to be told twice. They were horrified that someone so young could have so many scars. They were seriously wondering what had happened to him? They walked out of the room right away and left Unohana to patch Ichigo up.

A/N: Finally! Do any of you have any idea how long it took to write this evil chapter? Neither do I! I seriously lost track, but I know it took a long time. Well, I hope you liked this ridiculously long chapter. I'll hopefully have the next one up soon. I entered a singing contest, so I have to practice for it.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own the story, only Bleach...Wait...That's a bit backwards. Let's try this again. I don't own Bleach. I only own my story...plot...thingy...SQUIRREL!!

Um. I won my computer war. Well you already knew this. Moving on, this is going to be very difficult, but I have to write this very quickly. I did almost have the chapter done, but the new word document program that I started using deleted itself. I don't know how, but it did. So here's the tenth chapter of Lost Future. If you don't like it, I'm sorry, but this is serious short notice. I promised someone I'd have it up today, and dammit, I'll have it up! Also, sorry if this chapter is too descriptive.

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When Ichigo woke up, he was alone. None of the lights were on. Everything Ichigo saw was iluminated by the moon, which was visible because the curtains were drawn back from the window. He sat up, taking in as much of his surroundings as he could see. There were a dozen beds in the infirmary. It seemed as though the only one that was occupied was his own. He slowly sat up, trying not to irritate his wounds. He failed. He winced as he sat completely up. His shirt was gone, but he didn't really care. It was ruined from all the blood, so he'd never be able to wear it again anyway. Thankfully, he noticed a new one hanging over the end of his bed. He carefully reached toward it and put it on. Once he felt relaxed enough, he stood up.

He moved towards the door and opened it, expecting to be stopped and sent back to bed. That didn't happen. In fact, when he left the infirmary, he couldn't see anyone in the office area. That was odd. Didn't they have people on the night shift or something? He pushed the oncoming questions from his mind and walked out into the hallway. The large, continuous windows along the wall to his left revealed the inner courtyard of the academy. He turned his thoughts to where he was going. He couldn't remember how he'd gotten to the infirmary. All he remembered was his mom and that guy - Samaka - guiding him through the strange corridors. Then Unohana appeared and...nothing. Nothing after seeing Unohana. He must have passed out.

Ten minutes later, he looked at his phone. The time was 11:27 PM. Almost midnight. So many questions ran through Ichigo's mind. Was there a curfew? Would he get in trouble for wandering the halls so late? Was anyone even awake? After a few more minutes of walking, he ended up back at the infirmary. He couldn't believe it. He'd gone in a freakin' circle! He was exhausted and he'd walked around aimlessly for nothing. Deciding that getting angry wasn't going to solve anything, Ichigo set off again, this time going down a different hallway. He made sure to get as far away from the infirmary as he could, but about twenty minutes later, he ended right back at the infirmary.

"What the hell is wrong with this place?!" Ichigo shouted to no one. He felt completely confused, irritated, and lost. So, he did the last thing that came to his mind.

He took his phone back out of his pocket and pushed the needed buttons. He put the phone to his ear and waited for an answer. When they answered, Ichigo said, "Hey, Rukia. I...need some help..." He was aware that he sounded completely embarrassed to have to call the midget, but he didn't really care at this point.

"Ichigo?" Ichigo flinched. She sounded irritated. "What are you doing up so late?"

He sighed and answered the question given to him. "Well, I just woke up and I need to find my way back to my dorm."

"Why aren't you in your dorm?"

Ichigo hesitated. "Well, I was in the infirmary and..."

"Why the hell were you in the infirmary? Don't tell me you got into a fight already..." Rukia growled out, her tone threatening.

Ichigo knew he went pale as he answered, "No, no! My wounds just reopened. I woke up about forty five minutes ago and there was no one in the infirmary. So, I left."

"Idiot," he heard her sigh. "So what do you need?"

"Everytime I leave the infirmary, I end up right back at it! It doesn't matter what direction I go in!" he explained.

Rukia sounded reminescent as she said to herself, "Hm. So they still have that little illusion going. Listen to me, Ichigo. Just give up trying to go to your dorm. They've got this spell or illusion on the halls after eleven o'clock. Anyone who is out too late won't be able to find their dorm. Look, instead, for room 206B. There should be a meeting going on right now. You need to talk to them and have one of them take you to your dorm."

Ichigo started to relax and said, "Thanks, Rukia. I owe you one."

"Oh, and Ichigo?"

"Yeah."

"Don't hurt yourself." Ichigo scowled. He could almost hear the smirk.

Before he got the chance to say anything, she'd already hung up. Ichigo glared at the phone for a moment before returning it to its place in his pocket.

"Alright, then," Ichigo said to himself. "Room 206B..."

He started walking again, this time thinking about going to room 206B. He didn't really want to deal with the staff in any way, but he didn't really have a choice. Hell, he didn't even want to see Yoruichi. She was just getting on his last nerve. He walked for a while before he saw a door with light and voices coming from it. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves and lightly knocked on the door. All conversation ceased as they heard the knock on the door and Ichigo was instantly nervous again.

"Come in," a gruff voice answered. Ichigo opened the door, showing as little fear and nervousness as possible.

"Arashi-kun!" Samaka exclaimed, seemingly surprised that he was awake.

A gruff looking guy with grey hair - Ichigo was gonna assume that he was the one who told him to come in - glared at him. "What the hell are you doing out of your dorm."

Ichigo ignored him for a minute to look and see who was in the room. He was surprised. It seemed that every staff member in the school was there. He saw his mom stand up slowly. "I...uh...can't exactly get to my dorm." Yoruichi smirked at him.

"I take it you called Rukia," she stated slyly, making the phone call sound as if it had been for something completely different than what it had been.

Ichigo glared at her. And if looks could kill...

She laughed at him, while all the others were frozen with shock. "Oh, cut it out. You know I'm just teasing. Now quit it with the eyes already!"

Ichigo blinked a couple of times as he realized how much reiatsu he'd released. He reminded himself that it was just a joke and did his best to calm down. It didn't work as well as Yoruichi had hoped, if the look on her face was anything to go on, but it was good enough for now.

"When did you wake up?" Masaki asked him. Ichigo looked at his phone and was surprised that almost no time had passed since he left the infirmary the last time. He shook the thought away. He wasn't going to ponder over the mysteries of the school.

"Maybe...fifty-five minutes ago...I think..." Ichigo wasn't very sure. He was just guessing.

"And you just thought to come here?" the grey haired man snapped.

"Tsukumori-san! He didn't know!" Masaki snapped at him, raising her own reiatsu. Ichigo's eyes widened. He hadn't known his mother had so much reiatsu. Did that mean she'd seen Grande Fisher?

"What's dorm are you in?" Masaki asked him, smiling the way she used to smile when she was alive.

Ichigo went pale, "213."

Samaka looked truely horrified as he said, "I am _so _sorry."

Ichigo shrugged. "They're not that bad."

"You _have _dealt with worse," Yoruichi mused. Ichigo glared at her.

"How much do you actually know about this boy, Yoruichi?" Masaki asked her, the suspicion obvious in her eyes.

Yoruichi laughed as she said, "Everything!"

"Can we please just go to my dorm?" Ichigo pleaded, not wanting the teachers asking about his life.

"Why, Arashi! This is so sudden!" Yoruichi said, her hand going to her mouth in mock surprise.

"Sh-shut up!" Ichigo blushed. Yoruichi just chuckled as she shunpoed to him, grabbed his arm, and yanked him out of the room with her arm linked with his. The rest of the staff could hear him shouting for her to let go of his arm.

~:~

"Why the hell do you always do that to me?!" Ichigo asked furious and humiliated.

She turned and smiled at him. "Because it's fun!" She said nothing else and continued pulling him through the corridors. Ichigo observed the school now that he knew he wasn't going to get hopelessly lost again. All of the hallways were nearly identical. The only differences were the numbers labeling the doors and what side the doors and windows were on. As they walked on, Ichigo got tired of the scenery and focused on where they were going. He didn't want to end up doing this again, so he tried to memorize exactly where everything was. It wasn't working. He was too tired to even thing about memorizing anything. He knew that as soon as he got in the dorm, he would be out like a light.

They finally reached the dorm and Ichigo reached out to open the door, but Yoruichi didn't leave. "Why aren't you leaving?"

She smirked. "I want to see this."

Ichigo rolled his eyes and opened the door. He yelped as he was roughly pulled into the room. It was none other than Kaien. Ichigo glared at him as he tried to loosen the grip Kaien had on his shirt.

"Let go!" Ichigo snapped. He looked behind Kaien and saw Koseki and Hakushi sitting on their beds, arms folded over their chests, smirking at him.

"Not until you tell me where the hell you've been!" he yelled at the teen.

"He was in the infirmary," Yoruichi's voice chimed in from the door behind Ichigo. He looked at her the best he could and glared, swearing that he would one day kill her.

Kaien looked surprised. Then he turned back to Ichigo, "Why?"

Ichigo groaned. "Can we talk about this tomorrow? I'm exhausted!"

Yoruichi snorted, "Surprising, since you've been asleep the whole time!"

"Shut up or I swear! The next time you turn into a cat, I will stick you inside of a cat carrier!" Ichigo threatened, knowing full well that he'd do it if he had to.

"Fine, fine! Good night!" she called as she left and closed the door.

Ichigo looked expectantly at Kaien, who still had the death grip on his shirt. The man groaned and reluctantly let go of Ichigo's shirt. Ichigo, his mind set on one thing and one thing only, plopped down, face first, on his bed and was asleep instantly.

Luckily for his three roommates, he wasn't conscious to see the smirks they had when they looked at him.

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A/N: Sorry! I know this chapter really sucks, but I am really tired and need sleep! I promise I'll be updating more. But for now....SLEEP!!!! Goodnight!


	11. Annoying Roommates!

Disclaimer: I won nothing!...Dammit! Sorry, I meant 'own'. Not 'won.' Wow, my typing sucks lately...

Hold on a sec...Okay, now that I have the couch to protect me, I am so, so, so, so, so, so, sorry for taking so long with this! There are no words to describe how bad I feel about taking so long to update. I will totally understand if you all want to kill me. Well, I know you aren't here for my rambling, so on with the story.

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When Ichigo woke up, it was still dark outside. Sitting up with a groan, he observed his sleeping roommates. Kaien was on his stomach with his arms and legs tangled in the blanket, about to fall off the bed. Ichigo didn't care. It served him right, with the fit he'd thrown that night. Koseki and Hakushi were on their sides, curled up with their blankets forgotten on the floor. Ichigo shook his head. They were so in sync it was almost creepy.

Before standing from his bed, he stretched his arms to the best of his ability. He really didn't want to end up in the infirmary again, so he'd have to be careful. The front of his phone gave away that it wasn't even 5:30 yet. That meant he had half an hour to take a shower, get changed, and make sure that all of his wounds were completely bandaged and hidden. After accomplishing these tasks, he walked back to his dorm from the showers, his aggravatingly black hair still dripping onto the towel he'd hung around his neck. It was five minutes to six when he walked through the door.

And unfortunately, everybody was awake.

"There you are! We were about to check the infirmary!" Koseki greeted Ichigo.

Hokeshi looked up at him from his task of packing his stuff into his bag to add, "Oh, and just to let you know, we sent Kaien out to look for you." He ended the warning with a smirk when Ichigo's face paled.

Right on cue, Kaien walked back into the dorm, glaring once he spotted Ichigo. "Where the hell did you go this time?" he snapped at him.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. What was with this guy? "I took a shower?"

"Are you telling me or asking me?" Kaien lectured him.

"Shut up! I woke up early and figured that if I wasn't gonna get anymore sleep, I'd might as well be productive!" he defended himself.

"Why are you so defensive?" Koseki asked Ichigo.

The teen felt a blush rise to his face. "Because you guys are always throwing accusations at me."

"Aw...Did we hurt your feelings?" Hokeshi teased.

Ichigo ignored him and tried stretching out his shoulders again. No such luck. They still hurt like hell and Ichigo was _not _looking forward to the rest of the day. The room's other inhabitants noticed Ichigo flinch in pain and exchanged concerned glances among themselves.

"Are you okay?" Hokeshi asked, taking in Ichigo's tense form as he struggled to organize the crap he had in his bag.

"Yeah. Wh..." Ichigo was cut of by Kaien.

"Bull!"

Ichigo's eyes widened in surprise at his roommate's outburst. He hadn't realized how obvious he was being. He was no actor; Ichigo had accepted that fact long ago. But he was used to people just assuming he'd gotten into another fight and going on about their regular lives. No such luck here. Nobody knew what problems he had with everyone at home. Now that he was in disguise, he didn't have those problems anymore. He still hadn't expected anyone to really give a damn about his health.

Kaien walked towards Ichigo until the teen was backed up against a wall. He didn't realize just how intimidating the man could be, but now he knew that lying would be a real pain.

"You have a lot of explaining to do," the man growled. "Why the hell were you in the infirmary last night?"

"I got hurt." There. He didn't lie; he just didn't tell the whole truth.

"How?" Koseki cut in. Ichigo glared at him. It seemed that Kaien wasn't going to be the only difficult one.

"Does it matter?" Ichigo asked as calmly as he could, though he was beginning to get scared as the twins were now advancing toward him to stand just behind Kaien.

"Answer the question!" Hokeshi yelled.

Ichigo felt a smirk forming on his face. The three men in front of him seemed to always be taking turns when speaking. There was even a bit of a pattern. When he voiced his thoughts to the men, their glares immediately intensified.

For once, it was Koseki that snapped.

"Answer the damn question, or so help me, I'll..." the man was cut off by a bell signifying that they had ten minutes to get to their first class.

The three men hesitantly stepped back to let Ichigo grab his things. Thankfully Koseki and Hokeshi were years ahead of him, so he wouldn't see them until lunch. But Kaien would probably end up being a major problem, considering they were put into the 'high level' class despite having more power than the others. Apparently, they didn't have the teachers or the time to have a whole separate class just for Ichigo and Kaien.

Once they'd all grabbed their bags, they all set off to their classes together. That is, until Hokeshi and Koseki went of with the sixth year 'high level' students. Kaien and Ichigo continued to their first class, which was with the Reiatsu Control teacher, Zuzuki Nana.

When they were almost to their class, Kaien explained, "When we get to class, we'll sit down and let Zuzuki-sensei go through attendance. Then, we'll get up and go to the front office to get our Reiatsu measured." Ichigo nodded in agreement and they continued the rest of their walk in silence. Once they got to class, they sat down in two of the front seats so that they would be able to get out of their as fast as possible. But Ichigo knew that they already held the attention of the rest of the class. They were the last to arrive, sitting down just as the teacher started taking attendance. After about eight minutes of waiting and listening, the teacher put the student list down and motioned for Ichigo and Kaien to leave. They did so and Ichigo couldn't help but worry about what was about to happen next.

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A/N: Oh, my gosh! I updated a full chapter! It may be fairly short, but I've been diagnosed with some sort of depression, so count yourself lucky I'm here at all! -cough- Well, review. Sorry if this seriously sucks, but I have very little motivation. Seriously. You guys are all I got.


	12. Well, Damn

Disclaimer: Really? After all these years? You STILL think I think I own this? Well I don't think you think what I think you think I think...I think?

Que the music. For I have returned!...After two years...I think...I'M SO SORRY! I LOVE YOU ALL! ~cough. Here is the...12th chapter of "Lost Future" that I'm sure many of you have been waiting for.

Let's see if my writing is any better!

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As they wandered down the labyrinth like hallways, Ichigo tried to create a mental map of where the hell he was going. Can anyone say lost cause? Everything looked the same. But then again, the Seireitei was pretty much the same way. Ichigo couldn't have counted how many times he went the wrong way and had to go back to the start of the path he was on.

But this place! There was nothing to make any of the hallways unique, other than the numbers above the doors. Evil. That would have to be the only word to describe whoever built the damn place.

"Where the hell are we!" Ichigo finally shouted out of frustration. He was so confused.

"..." was Kaien's reply.

"You don't have any clue, do you?"

"..."

"...Bastard."

The rest of the trip was silent and Ichigo didn't even try to guess how much time had passed. He wished that he could have practiced how much reiatsu he would release. He was either going to fail miserably or kill them all.

Eventually, they came to a hallway that actually had an end. Shocker. The door it lead to seemed normal enough. Brown, apparently wood, but as they got closer, Ichigo could see that a soft silver light was emanating from its surface.

"What the hell...?" Ichigo muttered.

"Ah..." Kaien grinned. "So you can see it."

Ichigo said nothing. He wasn't sure if that was a question or a statement. He wasn't really willing to ask and make a fool out of himself.

Ichigo went to knock on the door, but Kaien got to it first. But instead of knocking, he just walked right in. Ichigo hoped that whoever was inside would see that as completely impolite and stab him with something. Then, maybe, he wouldn't be as annoying and overprotective.

No such luck.

"Takashi-san. Shiba-sama," a young-ish looking woman greeted them. Afew other people were behind her, nodding to them. Ichigo was surprised that they gave such a high title to Kaien, but then remembered that the Shibas were of a noble family.

"So...how do you guys want to do this?" Kaien asked her, completely ignoring all semblance of formality that Ichigo would have been using if he'd been given a chance to talk.

The woman was completely unaffected by what Kaien said. "One at a time, Shiba-sama first, release all of the reiatsu you can. That's it."

Kaien nodded and motioned for Ichigo to move back. Ichigo did so, even knowing that the reiatsu that Kaien would be releasing wouldn't affect him too much.

Kaien focused raised as much energy as he could before letting it all loose at once. The officials that were in the room immediately fell to the ground gasping for breath. But that didn't surprise Ichigo at all. What did shock him was the fact that the seemingly wooden walls had completely absorbed all of the reiatsu that had been let loose and were now a shocking, glowing silver. Kaien looked unusually pleased with himself as he caught his breath.

He looked at Ichigo with a smirk and said, "Your turn, brat."

Ichigo glared at him, but said nothing.

Instead of following Kaien's example, Ichigo waited until the officials had regained their composure and were good and ready. They quickly wrote down something on their clipboards (most likely Kaien's results) and the walls returned to their normal shimmery brown state. They nodded at him, giving him the go-ahead to gather his reiatsu.

Ichigo was nervous. There was no way he was going to release all of his energy. He'd kill everyone, so he had to focus more than Kaien had. It probably looked like he was having problems. Kaien was giving him that concerned look again. He raised all of the energy he decided he'd need (which he felt wasn't much) and release it. The official and Kaien were thrown against the walls, which had turned a blinding pure white. Ichigo, being the caring person people rarely saw, ran over to the officials hoping that he hadn't killed them. Kaien did the same.

"Are you guys alright? I'm so sorry!" Ichigo felt guilty that he'd allowed so much energy to leave him.

"It's quite alright. No permanent damage was done," The woman told him, softening her tone when she saw how worried the teen was.

"I almost killed you!" Ichigo wasn't going to let it go.

"No, you didn't. This is a very special room. While the blast of energy did shock us quite a bit, the walls absorbed it long before it could do any lasting damage. This is the safest room in the entire school." She informed him with a small smile.

"Geez, kid. You've got quite a bit of power there," Kaien joked, still recovering from his shock. Ichigo was pained to see the bruise on his temple from hitting the wall. He decided not to comment on it.

Ichigo shrugged. Kaien frowned, realizing just how guilty he was feeling.

"Let's get back to class," Kaien suggested as the walls dimmed down again, albeit a little slower that when before. The officials seemed to be okay, even though they were now sporting obvious bruises. They wrote down Ichigo's results while Kaien dragged Ichigo out of the room.

"Not bad, kid. Not bad at all. Where are you hiding all that power? You're a twig!" Kaien seemed pretty happy about Ichigo's results, even if Ichigo didn't feel the same. He _did, _however, narrow his eyes at being called a twig. But then he remembered that Kaien had never seen him without a shirt and pushed the annoyance to the back of his mind.

Kaien looked at Ichigo when he didn't get a response. He frowned at the grimace on the teen's face. Was he really that worried about what he'd done?

Kaien surprised Ichigo when he said in a serious tone, "Don't worry so much. They should be used to a lot of reiatsu right now. Imagine what Hitsugaya did to them." Ichigo appreciated the joke, but he seriously doubted that Toushiro held back like he had. But he tried to stop brooding abit.

In no time at all, they were back at the classroom. It'd only been a half hour since they'd gone, but it'd felt like hours to Ichigo, but he blamed that on his bad mood.

As soon as Kaien opened the door, all eyes were on them. Ichigo chose to ignore the looks and go straight to his seat and take out paper.

"So? How'd it go?" Zuzuki-sensei asked them, seeming genuinely curious.

Kaien grinned at her and said, "Pretty good. I think I improved since last time."

She seemed happy about his results. Then she looked at Ichigo. He didn't look at her, instead choosing to focus on copying down the notes that were written on the board. "How about you, Takashi-kun?"

"Fine."

"Just fine?" she asked him, confused. Kaien sighed.

"He did a hell of a lot better than I did. He's just a bit upset. When he released his reiatsu, it sent everyone flying. I think he's got a bit of a hero complex," Kaien informed the teacher. He knew Ichigo was glaring at him, but he just found it funny.

Ichigo decided that ignoring them would be best, so he continued writing. Eventually, Zuzuki-sensei continued class, which he was grateful for. The rest of class was uneventful and when they were released, Ichigo was the first to leave, not even bothering to wait for Kaien.

He missed the concerned look Kaien shot him.

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A/N: Shorter than I wanted, but I'm getting sleepy. I have school tomorrow and I can't afford to be too tired. I graduate on Thursday :)

I'll have the next chapter up soon. I promise. Feel free to annoy me as much as you want.


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